The New York Times ran an article yesterday about pennies. Seems that a Chinese Restaurant refused to let Wayne Jones pay the $2.75 for his four fried chicken wings to-go, because he wanted to use 10 pennies: two $1 bills, two quarters, one dime, one nickel — and 10 pennies.

Every penny counts. But 10 of them didn’t one recent night in the Bronx, and that’s how the trouble started.

It was about 11:30 p.m. on April 23 when Wayne Jones stopped at the Great Wall Chinese Restaurant in the Soundview section. Mr. Jones, 47, a lieutenant with the Fire Department’s Emergency Medical Service, ordered four fried chicken wings to go. The total was $2.75.

Mr. Jones placed his money on the counter: two $1 bills, two quarters, one dime, one nickel — and 10 pennies.

“The lady behind the counter started yelling, ‘No pennies, no pennies,’ ” Mr. Jones said. The woman told him she would take 3 or 4 pennies, he said, but not 10.

Mr. Jones was upset enough about this that he emailed people (including elected officials) to complain. He felt that this attitude discouraged the poor and the homeless. That bit of drama, coupled with the power of the internet, created a “sidewalk circus”.

The tale of the 10 pennies unfolded yesterday in a sort of sidewalk circus. It was a melodrama of pocket-change proportions, part political stagecraft, part whodunit and, perhaps, part slow news day.

Reporters descended upon the cramped, seatless lobby of Great Wall as customers elbowed their way inside to order food. A Bronx lawmaker stood outside alongside Mr. Jones, vowing to take up the issue in Albany….

… reporters pestered her with questions and a crowd, including a number of ministers, gathered on the sidewalk …

Rubén Díaz Sr., a state senator whose district includes the restaurant on Watson Avenue, called the news conference outside Great Wall. His staff members handed out a draft of a bill Mr. Díaz plans to introduce in the Senate, requiring retail establishments to accept all forms and denominations of legal tender, with violations punishable by a fine of up to $500 or 30 days in jail, or both….

That night, [Mr. Jones] said, he had a lot of change in his pocket that he was eager to get rid of. “I could have very easily pulled out another form of currency and paid her in it,” he said. “But it was the principle of the thing. I could’ve been anyone. I could’ve been somebody off the street who had no other means of currency.”

After most of the reporters and Mr. Díaz had left, Mr. Jones went inside Great Wall and spoke briefly with Ms. Lin. “She did apologize,” Mr. Jones said later. “We shook hands. And then I placed an order.”

He asked for four chicken wings. He paid the $2.75 with two $1 bills, two quarters, one dime, one nickel — and 10 pennies.