Haggling with Jim

While We Were Waiting before the Markets

We went there for breakfast and negotiated at a stall for bananas with a boy of about 9. He weighed our bunch that we chose scratched hes head and held up 5 fingers I said 4 and in our hands I had 5 and Richard Fitzgerald had 2 Yuan. The boy reached out and took 5 from me and then leant across and took 1 from Richard we looked at each other and he processed the transaction with he's head down smiling. We walked off with the goods a little confused, as we realised what happened we burst out laughing. We told the group what happened still laughing and they all of a sudden got an appetite for bananas so Jim came to make an attempt at evening the ledger so of we went. Jim held up a big bunch and showed 5 fingers, the boy grabbed the bunch off Jim, pulled out a big knife and decisively struck the bunch. He took over a third of the bunch and held up 5 fingers to Jim, Jim shocked, nodded and the boy weighed the bunch and went back to the cutting board........chop !, 2 more bananas down. The boy walked to the scales repeated the weighing process, he looked up at Jim and held up 5 fingers, with Jim a little confused and us laughing the boy went back to the board and conclusively sliced off another banana and handed the remaining bunch to Jim 4 bananas for 5 Yuan. Bewildered, we took the bananas and walked away breaking out into laughter after a few steps, we went back and took some photos.