Mar 24, 2010

Small change

Here is a joke I read recently. The monk told the sandwich vendor to make him one with everything. The monk hands over a $20 bill in return for his deck sandwich and waits for the change. He waits for a long time. But, when finally, he asks for it, he’s politely informed that “change comes only from within”.

I remember an incident when I purchased some film rolls and handed over a 500 rupee note to the shopkeeper. He gave me the change and, as I was in a hurry to buy tickets for a train journey, I rushed to the ticket counter nearby. Standing in the queue, I leisurely counted the change given by the shopkeeper and realized that there was a mistake.

I rushed back to the shopkeeper and told him that there was a mistake in the amount of change given by him. His countenance changed, he became wild and started saying that he never makes a mistake, people like you are out to cheat us, you should have counted the notes before you left the shop, there is no way I am going to entertain you, you think you can easily fool me, I am not going to fall into your trap, what do you think of yourself and he went on and on. He paused only when he noticed that I was just standing there looking at him without reacting. I took advantage of the pause to tell him,

“But, bhaisaheb, you have given me 100 rupees extra”

It was a treat to watch his reaction as he had to suddenly change from a very angry victim to a grateful person. He did not know where to look and sheepishly accepted the note.

Why did he react the way he did? In my view, there are basically two kinds of people with two different basics approaches to people, mainly strangers. More about these two approaches in the next post.

5 Comments:

  1. Unknown said...
    this more about in the next post is a pain yaar. abhhich kardalo:)
    Suresh said...
    Sekhar

    Thoda suspense is good in life, don't you think? Sorry, will have to wait till my next post.
    Varshapanicker said...
    boss, i agree with sc... this is like taking a thriller to its climax and bang - break ke baad!

    so when is the next post due?
    Suresh said...
    The basic principle of suspense fiction is not to take the reader where he or she wants to go but to keep them hanging.

    The next post is due after another surprise guest post.
    jazzy said...
    Its high time to break the suspense!!!!
    & its been long since m waiting for the climax….ths suspense is almost killing……whrz the next post dear?

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