Luckily I still had some coins to pay the bill, but the rest was not enough for me to buy meat later at the AH. I was in a hurry heading for Wageningen Hoog so I didn’t want to go back to Dijkgraaf just for a wallet. Considering my good relationship with the shopkeeper, I guessed it would be likely to borrow money from him. After my explanation, he cast a glance at the cash register, then looked at me and started telling a story: he had once lent money to two guys, 12 euro for one, and 25 for the other. But afterwards they didn’t come back. His wife didn’t want it to happen anymore. ‘I know you, I trust you, but others may not agree. Also tomorrow I’m not in the shop,’ he gave me the best lecture of euphemism. ‘I can understand. No problem, thanks anyway,’ I can’t say I totally believed his story, but I knew that’s the best way to end our talk.
I turned to the AH, opposite to the grocery, as my last straw to grasp at; I had a theory that it’s a small-probability event to meet no acquaintance in AH. No exception: I noticed a Chinese guy, who I frequently met in De Bongerd, was leaving from there. ‘Sorry, I only have the PIN card, no cash. And I’ve got to go, sorry,’ his answer entirely quenching my last hope.
Trust, is an eternal hot topic in our life.
It reminded me of an experience I had in Prague: I was in the subway and asked five persons to borrow a mobile for a call, and was rejected for different plausible reasons until I asked the sixth one, a mid-aged woman. But life doesn’t give you straight flush all the time, this time no saviour showed up and I could only go home for the wallet. Well, mercifully I still managed the dinner on time. Sometimes life just has such a paralyzing moment and we have no solutions for it. My lesson for you is: always keep the wallet in your pocket, at least a PIN card, or a careful mind.