What your employer did is theft. It is really simple for them to count your drawer and politely tell the customer to get lost.

Uh.. no. You get the police involved, you demand that a manager pull security footage. You quit/get fired and move on to a better job. But you don't give your hard earned money away to a low life.

Not sure if this is relevant but cameras are a necessity. When I was a kid I had gotten forty for my birthday went to a dollar store and just gave them both $20's expecting my change. ( i wanted smaller bills). The cashier pocketed one twenty and convinced the manager that I only gave one 20. And I would have to be insane to give here two $20's for a $4 purchase.

At my old job, I sent the work till down by falling for this. She was screaming at me that she gave a hundred dollar note, when I knew she'd just given me a fifty. I tried to argue, but she pointed at the hundred in the (shared) till. I had seen that my workmate had taken a $100 bill off another customer, but since I was new, my duty manager yelled at me to "just give her the money". Wasn't the duty manager that got into shit when the till was $50 down though....

You should have counted down the register or had someone else do it to prove your innocence. That or I would have walked out on the spot.

How??

How exactly?

You deserve it if you gave a customer your own money. How the **** does that even happen?!