Probably Stolen: How to Use the Magnifying Glass and Confront a Customer

Your first counterfeit job in Probably Stolen: Cyberpunk Shopkeeper Sim arrives on Day 3. The Mentor warns that a shipment of fake cigarettes has hit the station, and from then on any customer’s pack could be a forgery.

Quick answer: Pick up the Magnifying Glass at the counter and drop it onto the customer’s inspectable item; the Inspection Tray will appear. Select one reason in the Counterfeit Check panel, then press Confront.

A single checked reason can flag a counterfeit. A correct judgment leads the customer to change the price. A wrong accusation costs Reputation and may drive the customer to shop elsewhere. If you find no problem, close the tray and trade as usual.

What you need before inspecting an item

On Day 3, the Mentor leaves you three things:

A Magnifying Glass
The Hemingway Identification Guide
“Mentor’s Note: Visual Inspection”

The Magnifying Glass is a Tools item with a base value of 50. Its store text reads “Used to inspect certain items more closely.”

The Hemingway Identification Guide opens as the Station Trade Commission’s “Hemingway Cigarette Authenticity Handbook”. To read it, or any other manual, right-click it in your inventory and choose Read. The handbook is split into the same four checks as the Station Trade Commission’s Counterfeit Check sheet:

Lettering Issues
Logo Issues
Color Issues
Security Seal Issues

Each section shows examples marked Genuine, Incorrect Font, Incorrect Spelling, Incorrect, or Incorrect Example. The lettering section notes that “The differences should be obvious at a glance.”

Other goods have their own manuals: the Food Stamp Identification Handbook, the Immunivax Assessment Guide, the Ribwich Appraisal Guide, and the Water Trading Manual. Water is checked with a Water Testing Strip, not the Magnifying Glass.

Pixel-art pawn shop counter with a lined paper tutorial note on the left and an item inventory grid below. — The Mentor’s Visual Inspection note.

How to inspect an item and confront a customer

Hover over the item the customer has placed on the counter and read its tooltip. A Hemingway pack reads “(Not Owned) Pack of Hemingway Cigarettes, pastel Inc., [Substance] [Luxury Item], Est. Value: 100, Base Value: 100, Can be inspected with a Magnifying Glass, [Label] Genuine”. The line “Can be inspected with a Magnifying Glass” shows that the item can be checked.

Drag the Magnifying Glass onto the customer’s item, either from the counter or straight from your inventory. Hold the mouse button and drag slowly. This opens the Inspection Tray.

Inspection Tray open on a Pack of Hemingway Cigarettes with the Counterfeit Check panel — The Inspection Tray opens with the item inside and the Counterfeit Check panel bottom right.

Drag the glass by its handle to move the round lens over the item; dragging anywhere else moves the whole tray window instead. Examine the cross-and-vine emblem on the pack, the “Hemingway” lettering under it, and the holographic security seal at the top of the pack. Check all three against the Genuine examples in the handbook.

If something doesn’t match, tick the matching reason in the Counterfeit Check panel at the bottom right of the tray. The checkboxes are Lettering Issues, Color Issues, Seal Issues, Logo Issues, and Box Issues. As the Mentor puts it, “A single discrepancy is enough.”

The lens over the pack’s logo, with the Counterfeit Check reasons bottom right.

Press Confront to challenge the customer. If the pack checks out instead, close the tray with the X at its top right and carry on with the trade.

What happens when you confront a customer

Confronting is a bet. The result depends on whether the item really is counterfeit.

Your Confront call	Result
Right	The client adjusts the price
Wrong	You lose Reputation; the client may leave

Because a wrong call costs Reputation, only press Confront when a detail clearly breaks from the handbook’s Genuine examples.

What a genuine Hemingway pack looks like after the check

After the inspection succeeds, the item appears in the SELLING panel under “Condition” with “-Genuine (0%)”. On Day 3, at Mark Up difficulty, a Scavenger offers a Pack of Hemingway Cigarettes for 100 credits. After the item passes inspection, purchase it for that amount by selecting “Buy 1 Items”.

Pixel-art pawn shop counter with a woman behind glass and a trade panel listing cigarettes for 100 credits. — A clean pack shows Condition: Genuine (0%) on the SELLING panel.

Genuine packs resell well. On Day 4 at Mark Up difficulty, an Upper Level Visitor in BUYING mode has Substance among their Interests and a budget of 304. They buy two Packs of Hemingway Cigarettes for 115 credits apiece, spending 230 in total.

For every item’s tells, from Food Stamps to Immunivax serial numbers, see our guide to spotting fakes in Probably Stolen. The cigarette checks are covered in detail in how to spot fake Hemingway cigarettes, and the Mentor’s other lessons are collected in all 18 Mentor’s notes. Items with complex prices go to the Appraisal Guild instead, and the complete Probably Stolen guide ties every system together.