A father and son deli-owning duo insisted Saturday they were in court for a simple misunderstanding — and not because they tried to scam a customer out of a winning $1 million scratch-off ticket as authorities claim.

“Maybe the ticket said a million. But I gave him a thousand. I made a mistake,” Karim Jaghab, 26, told Nassau County police after he and his father were pinched for allegedly giving the customer a measly grand and trying to pocket the ticket for themselves.

The 34-year-old customer brought an “Unwrap the Cash” ticket to the Peninsula Deli & Grocery on Thursday, and Karim Jaghab confirmed it as a winner, but, police say, he failed to tell the man it was a $1 million jackpot.

The alleged scheme was blown when the suspicious customer returned the next day and asked more questions, cops said.

That’s when Jaghab and his dad, owner Nabil Jaghab, 57, told the customer they’d give him $10,000 — as long as he didn’t squeal to police, authorities said.

The customer, who didn’t speak English, did indeed call the cops, who were able to find the winning ticket and confirm the deception.

“The guy handed me the ticket. I ran it through the machine. I paid him $1,000. I told him I would give him $10,000. I just didn’t want to get in trouble,” Jaghab told Nassau County police.

The Jaghabs, of East Meadow, were arrested on second-degree grand-larceny charges but protested the incident during their Saturday arraignment.

“My son made a mistake. He had the ticket now. Everything is OK. We threw [the] ticket in the garbage,” Nabil Jaghab allegedly told police, according to a criminal complaint filed against the Long Island duo.

Lotto prizes worth more than $600 are typically paid out from state lottery offices, not the store where the ticket was bought. It’s not the first time store clerks have been accused of shady dealings with jackpots.

In April, two clerks in Southampton were arrested and accused of trying to scam a construction worker out of $74,892 after telling him the winning ticket was worth just $774.

Matthew Fleischer, a lawyer for the Jaghabs, said it wasn’t their fault.

“It seems like a it was a simple mistake on the payout of the Lotto machine,” he said in court.

The Jaghabs were being held at the Nassau County Jail on $7,500 bail and are due in court on the case Tuesday.