Haggling addendum

Last week I went to the massive, semi-weekly market in town. I bought a cabbage for 300 shillings, about 15 cents.

Then yesterday I was walking home from the hospital and I saw some ladies selling vegetables. I bought some tomatoes and onions, and I threw in a cabbage, what the hell.

When I paid them they said I was 200 shillings short. I counted up the items and couldn't figure out where the discrepancy was.

"It's 300 shillings for a cabbage, right?"

"No, five hundred," one lady said.

"Oh. In the market last week it was three hundred."

The lady was middle-aged, and her bright sarong was knotted at the shoulder. "Even us," she said, "we buy them three hundred in the market." A smile was creeping up her cheek.

"And then you charge me five hundred!" I returned the smile.

The lady, happy that I was taking this the right way, gave me the full toothiness of her smile. In what seemed a universal gesture, she raised her palm to shoulder height.

I slapped it. High five for capitalism.