Lianko

 

October 6th, 2006

The Price of a Compliment

Today I realized that I’m either completely clueless, or beggars these days have become increasingly intelligent. Which is it? I’ll let you decide after reading the following entry.

After agonizing over crappy trainers for more time than is decent, I finally decided to go and buy some good ones (which will be hideously expensive, but will at least last more than 2 weeks). Being in a hurry, I decided to take a shortcut, one I don’t normally take due to lots of beggars and stray dogs. Nevertheless, the road had been modernized in the last two years, which in turn reduced the aforementioned problems, quite drastically. I should’ve kept in mind that “quite drastically” does not mean “completely”.

The shortcut, consists in using a set of stairs built into a hill. So instead of going round the hill, as I usually do, I can take the stairs to descend the hill. When I neared the stairs, I noticed a small girl/boy (wasn’t particularly certain about the gender) loitering about and looking quite interested in me.

Vera is immediatelly imaginning 384394 scenarios which result in rebuffing the girl’s/boy’s request for money, after all she is an expert in being an insensitive1… Slowly, she approaches the stairs…

Girl/Boy: You’re beautiful miss.

Vera’s jaw metaphorically hits the floor,”Wha –?”

Me: Thanks, you’re swe – *mumble*-et.2

Girl/Boy: You have very nice long hair. I wish I had such hair.

Vera establishes the person as a girl. Little boys don’t (usually) wish for long hair.

Me: It’s not all that fun. I have curly hair, which tends to frizz up a lot.

Girl: But it’s very nice. I have short hair.

Me: I often wished I had straight hair like yours. But one must be happy with what one has… otherwise it’s crap.

Vera gags mentally: “Did I just SAY that?!”

Girl: Yeah… You know miss, I was actually wondering: could you please give me 20 bani3 ?

Vera is flabbergasted… then smiles “Right… I’ve been had: R-O-Y-A-L-L-Y.” Vera gives the girl 1 RON4.

Girl: Thank you miss.

In retrospect I should’ve realized that complete strangers (be it small girls) don’t compliment you out of the blue. Then again, I guess I’ll know better next time.

  1. Ahem! No need to insult animals here [↩]
  2. Adjectives in Romanian have genre: feminin or masculin. So sweet would be translated as either “draguta” or “dragut”. I chose to mumble the ending, not wishing to offend the person. [↩]
  3. ~ 0.05 EUR [↩]
  4. ~ 0.25 EUR [↩]
 
 

16 Comments

  • Aenka
    October 6th, 2006

    At least she was nice about asking for money, so many beggars don’t even bother to make compliments. And there was a lesson to be learned about talking to strangers, haha.


  • Kimmie
    October 6th, 2006

    Yeah… how do you say no to that.


  • Vera
    October 6th, 2006

    @Aenka: yup, no more talking to strangers. I KNOW beggars are not that nice, they generally just approach me and ask. THAT I am used to… compliments are a new approach.

    @Kimmie: … which is why I conceded defeat and gave the girl more, for ingeniousness. :P


  • Lisa Marie
    October 6th, 2006

    Well, at least you got a compliment. Around here people just say things like “Hey you, you got a dollar?” No one compliments my hair. :(


  • Elizabeth
    October 8th, 2006

    Thats very sweet! That has never happened to me, but what you did was very great! I hate my hair though… =(


  • Vera
    October 8th, 2006

    Sometimes you just have to admit defeat.
    This was one of those “sometimes”.


  • Brandi
    October 9th, 2006

    You’re not stupid for falling for it. EVERYONE can get easily taken back by compliments. However, that boy/girl beggar is really quite smart and knows the game hahaa. I still think it was kind of you to give them something =)

    (despair.nu)


  • Brenda
    October 9th, 2006

    Hahaha, compliment in exchange for cash. Seems like that is the new ploy these days. :/

    The beggars in Singapore do not use any tactics so far, they simply sit by the roadside with a tin, waiting for money to fall out of the sky. I quite pity them, sometimes.


  • Jessica
    October 9th, 2006

    You can’t help but give the sweet kids that “beg” something. It’s in our nature. I am hit up by tweekers everytime I go somewhere. It would actually horrify me if a kid hit me up for money like that.


  • Ally
    October 11th, 2006

    Wow. How sweet, she complimented your hair.
    You can’t help but give money to begging kids.

    I don’t really see them but when I went on holiday by dad was constantly dropping money in their tins :)

    They’re compilmentary, and then they ask for money… LOL.
    x


  • Christine
    October 12th, 2006

    I’m a sucker for the homeless. When I go to San Francisco I give out change and money like it’s my job. I feel so bad, and then my Dad yells at me for being too soft haha.


  • Zalette
    October 13th, 2006

    I just think beggars are getting smarter… sending small children to do their bidding. On the bright side, at least you got some compliments out of it.


  • Amanda
    October 13th, 2006

    Ulterior motive or not…it was a very sweet thing to say. :)


  • Lissi
    October 13th, 2006

    That’s probably the nicest beggar I’ve ever heard of. Usually the one’s here are rude when you are trying to be nice. Like the time I offered food to this homeless man and he threw it in the street and demanded money.


  • Skye
    October 13th, 2006

    Wow, people begging for money here are never that nice… in fact they’re usually downright scary. Lol. I think that I would have given money too. Lol.


  • Michelle
    October 13th, 2006

    Lol hey that’s a clever “trick” to use. xD If i were you, i would have said ‘thanks’ and then walk off straight away cause i would be too shy. =x