I've noticed an interesting phenomenon here in India. Whenever you are owed change from your payment for something, you almost never receive it when the balance you're owed is less than 300 or so rupees (US$6 or less). This even happened at one of the hotels we stayed in.
Today, I tried to buy a Snickers bar in the Udaipur airport sundries shop. It was 60 rupees and I handed the man a 100 rupee note. You should have seen him scramble around to find 40 rupees change. He even asked his two cohorts running this tiny shop (yes, three people running a shop the size of a small closet) who turned their pockets inside out and couldn't find 40 rupees change. Finally, I gave up and told him to give me something else worth 40 rupees so we would be even.
I think shopkeepers in India either think they deserve the change as a tip, are trying to take advantage of a tourist, hoarding their small bills and coins, or think it will all balance out evenly for people over the period of a lifetime.
I know some friends of mine in the U.S. would go ballistic if this happened to them. They are tighter than tree bark with their money.
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