On Christmas Eve, the family took the Muni rail up Embarcadero to dinner. When I got on I swiped my Clipper Card several times to no avail. I finally realized it didn’t have enough money on it.

So, rather than go up and pay the conductor, and having watched several people get on without paying, I fell prey to my lessor person and skipped payment. My bad.

Which was fine until we got to the gate and a traffic control officer. I gave him the Clipper, it buzzed, and I was busted. Fair enough.

But I have to say, for Christmas Eve, the guy was a bit of a supercilious jerk. While his partner was writing a ticket, he was baiting me, asking, for example, if I thought it was all right to ride free.

I quietly simmered, waiting for my ticket, but when I provided ID, the partner called him over and the two conferred. Then he came over with a big smile and said they’d decided to let me off with a warning. Clearly, they’d recognized The Chronicle connection.

He took back the ticket, I went to the machine and added money and paid my fare. But to be honest, now I’m conflicted. First I was mad at the process and how unyielding he was. And then I was mad that they threw all those hard line principles overboard as soon as they recognized someone. So was I supposed to insist that they give me a ticket?

Moral: check your Clipper Card before you ride.