Here is a good scam. Someone comes up to you asking what you are looking for. I say an Internet cafe, but they all seem to be closed since it is Sunday. So he says he can show me, and as he points in the distance, and I follow his finger, someone else pours shit on top of my shoe without me noticing, of course. Then magically a shoe cleaner appears and offers to clean my shoes (this happens about 20 times a day). No thank you I say. But look, he says, it is full of shit. So I have no choice but to let him clean it. Then when he is finished he says only 550 rupees. I say I can buy new shoes for that amount. The first "very helpful guy" comes back and asks if I am having any problem. He says don't pay more than 250 rupees. I give the shoe cleaner 100 rupees, all the while trying to figure out how shit got on top of my shoe and no where else. In 4 years in Asia I have never had shit on top of my shoe. Anyway, first day in Delhi and already got scammed. But I will learn.
No picture this time (thank God)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I'd read about this one but never actually encountered it first, second, or even third hand. It's really kind of elegant - three people; one to make the approach and apply the magicians stock-in-trade of "indirection," getting you to look elsewhere while the shit-dauber works his magic, and then the shoe-shiner magically shows up. Where were you when it happened?
ReplyDeleteI love Delhi. Check out Nizzamudin if you can. There's a wonderful restaurant there (if you're eating meat) called Karims. Haus Khaz is another great area, with a great restaurant - The Bistro - eat on the patio overlooking the ruins. And get lost in Chadni Chawk - fantastic street food. If you've run out of reading matrial, the Fact and Fiction bookstore in Basant Vihar, kitty-corner from the Priya Cinema is one of my favorite places in the world. There's so much in Delhi, I spent almost a year there all told.