An amount he would've earned if he operated the dry cleaners for the rest of his life How...

Chili Palmer: [Telling Karen his idea for a movie] It's about a dry cleaner who owes a shylock fifteen thousand dollars and his three weeks over on the vig, the dry cleaner, let's call him "Leo" his scared and doesn't know any better so he leaves town and gets on a plane but the plane sits there and doesn't move so they announce over the PA system that there's some kind of mechanical problem and be delayed for an hour but they tell all the passengers to remain in their seats in case they can get it fixed sooner so the guy's nervous and in no shape to sit there and sweat it out so he gets off the plane and goes into the cocktail lounge and starts drinking one drink after another and he's still in the lounge when the plane crashes during takeoff, he couldn't believe his luck because if he stayed on the plane he'd be dead , now that everyone thinks his dead he wouldn't have to pay back the fifteen thousand dollars or what he owes on the vig, since Leo's name was on the passenger's list they bring his wife out to the airport where they're going through personal effects whatever wasn't burned up they tell the wife to look for only things she would know about, she returns home and the people from the airline come out to see her and they tell her how sorry they are and how their plane exploded they offer a settlement: an amount he would've earned if he operated the dry cleaners for the rest of his life Karen Flores: How much is the wife offered? Harry Zimm: Three hundred thousand dollars, so she takes it "money in the hand" and he gets his wife to cash the check and he leaves for Las Vegas he was supposed to call her to come out but she never hears from him because his gambling so much and his hot, turning the three hundred grand up to half a million dollars but its driving the guy nuts because his winning and he can't tell anybody who he is