Thursday, January 20, 2011

The Most expensive Mineral water in the World!

Here is my real tourist story

I was in Naples Italy in 2007, staying at a hotel near the Railway Station.

In the evening I walked around and saw  a flea (evening) market. I passed  a man selling mobile phones.. just a few on his desk. He called me in his Italian style English.. "Sir, would you like to buy a phone, special price..". I  shook my head, showing him my own  mobile, "I've got one", I told him.

He opened a box and showed a latest Nokia model, complete with charger and head phones. I thought the actual price was about 150 Euro at least. He put the price at 100 Euro and I said I was not interested.

"Sir, you see here it is still new, complete with manual", he said showing me the small booklet.

He kept offering me to buy and I kept refusing.

He said, " how much you are willing to pay?". I refused to say anything.

He finally said.."OK, you just say how much?".  To shook him off, I said, " 20 Euro".

He laughed then said 80, I said 20, he said 60, I said 20 he said 40 and finally 30.. he said he was sorry he cannot go much lower...

Then I thought, if he is wiling to give me the 150 Euro phone for 30 Euro, that is good.. I've got a bargain. So I agreed.

I took out my wallet, dipped my hand into it to take out my 30 Euro. As  I was counting my Euros, he ducked down to look for plastic bags. I saw him putting the box into the bag and we exchanged bag with money.

I walked back to my hotel thinking what a good bargain I got today.

Excited, on reaching my room, I opened the box and .....

.... lo and behold...


no phone.. just a 0.5 litre bottle of mineral water ..

Perhaps the most expensive mineral water I ever bought.. :-)

1 comment:

  1. funny story! moral of the story - never engage a street peddlar. just walk away :-D

    ReplyDelete