The people are honest people...but every once in a while, someone just might take advantage...
A not-so-gun-shy friend was enthusiastic to fire b.b. guns at packages of
cigarettes and whiskey in order to win them. Sounds ridiculous. Being in a Chinese country, the fine
print is all in Chinese. Ten shots
for $NT100.
Here is what transpired: after a clip was emptied, the woman would
reload, without asking whether my trigger-happy friend wanted to do so or
not. This shady trade was dealt
nine times, thus equaling ten clips.
As far as the sign might have read, it looked as though the $NT100 was
for ten clips. This was not the
case as Mr. First-day-here-in-your-country went to cash in and was charged
$NT1000, receiving only a measly two packages of (stale and crumbly)
cigarettes. Honest to the marrow,
he paid up. The woman had tricked
him. Dark enterprise.
But then along comes the cavalry.
Don�t mess with a man with a pen!
Using Sally
as an interpreter, we convinced the woman that we worked for a major publication
and we had just arrived in Taiwan to do a travel review column on the island,
it�s people, and it�s culture. The
woman�s devious behaviour placed a dark cloud over our impression, one which was
doomed to precipitate in a nationwide publication. Scratching at my cheek, she knew she had
lost face. Alya went further to
wipe a hand across her whole face � you have no face.
The woman attempted to rartionalize with Sally,
a local resident of the area, that if she had known it was a friend of hers, she
wouldn�t have done it, all the while getting very alarmed when I jotted notes
down in a pad.
How cold was that, however?
Regret to have cheated a friend of a friend, but not for the grand felony
of dishonesty to all of humankind in general? We were mad. Alya was yelling, taking more and more
face away. The woman did not look
comfortable. She would need surgery
after this, for a new face.
�There is no decency left in the human heart,� I declared, shaking my
head sadly, looking down at the floor and holding one of the guns to my
temple.
�No, no!� the already-embarrassed and now traumatized double-dealer
shouted.
In the end, we did not get the money back. However, we got something back bigger
than any other cheap souvenir: the woman�s face. Materialistically, we were able to get a
carton of cigarettes for partial compensation. As for the rest, we made the woman
apologize to my friend, and that was a very big thing in deed.
�I�ve got her face in my pocket, raiiiiight here,� he said later.
We walked off. Turning
around, I smiled and waved my notebook at her with a nod, one con-artist to
another. Rumor has it that Sally�s mom went by
the next day to put in her two cents.
After that, the woman disappeared for several days, refusing to open up
shop.
Hopefully she learned her lesson.
We can always go back and play, make sure she doesn�t wax crooked on
us. One foreigner looks like all
the others. Perhaps even bring an
International Journalist Association tag for proof. Make her dance as we shoot b.b.s at her
feet. You can�t cheat humanity like
this! Chang Kai-Shek, Bill Gates
and even that scoundrel Jesus wouldn�t stand for this! Dance!
It was a shame what she did to my friend. It was his first day in Taiwan, and this
is what happened. This could have
really brought him down, but fortunately the kindness and helpfulness of most
locals throughout the trip gave a brighter impression.