Well, not penmanship, exactly, but a great CYA story:

My father worked for a large electric and gas utility for many years, and enjoys telling the story of a coworker whose responsibility it was to order electrical supplies. One year in the early 1940s, in ordering the year's supply of copper wire, the friend misplaced a decimal point, and inadvertently ordered 10 times more than they needed. When all the copper arrived, and the friend was called on the carpet about his purchase, the friend blustered that he had intended the order, because, didn't they know there was a war coming. Well, within the year WWII had escalated, and copper was already running short, except for the utility, which had enough stock to last for the duration. And the misplaced decimal turned into genius.