The Fraud

I am very grateful  to my "co-authors" Robert Cable, John (Boomer20031),
Alan (fisheak) and Neil (from iTalki.com)

 The Fraud

1

There were two men in line ahead of Anthony. There were only three cash registers available, so Anthony chose the shortest line. Now he regretted his choice. The man in line nearest to the cashier raised a ruckus about the price of fish. He had already spent ten minutes insisting on a discount for such "shitty fish."  Although the cashier let him refuse that particular fish, the man wanted both the fish and the money.

At that time, they had been waiting for a manager. Another man right in front of Anthony was blind. He was wearing sunglasses and holding a shopping basket filled with various products in his hand without putting them on the conveyor belt. Finally, the man with the fish decided not to wait for "this shitty manager." He said that he was not going to purchase anything there anymore, and he left all his stuff in front of the cashier and stepped away from the cash register. At that moment the blind man put his basket on the counter where all that stuff was. It happened that the blind man put his shopping basket exactly on top of the “shitty fish”. As soon as the blind man released the basket from his hands, the basket fell on the floor. The blind man apologized and was going to bend down to gather up his items; but when he was bending down, his wallet dropped out of his pocket. Apparently he didn’t notice it; but the first guy, who was still next to the cash register, did.. That guy grabbed the wallet, saying “Oops, I dropped something!" and he quickly left. Anthony was only able to yell, “Hey, mister!  It’s not yours!”  The man turned and yelled back, “Shut up!  Now it’s mine”. Anthony was shocked by the behavior of that douchebag.

The cashier, having witnessed the situation, told the blind man that the bastard who was complaining had taken his wallet. He also wanted to know if there was anything in it other than money.  The man said it contained only 1050 rubles¹, but it was the last of his money till the end of the month.  So he had to make it last for one more week. The man said that he was sorry for the mess, but he had to leave all the items there because he could not pay for them. The cashier and Anthony helped to put his items in the shopping basket. The cashier told the man not to worry about his items because he would pay for them. He said he didn’t have enough money to give him more. He also looked at Anthony and asked if he could help the poor man a little. Anthony was moved and he was not able to refuse. He took almost all of his money from his wallet; it turned out to be around 1200 rubles and he handed it to the man. The blind man thanked both of them and went out.  When Anthony paid for his purchase the cashier closed his register and went for a break.

Anthony left the store and went to his parking space... It was rather far from the entrance so he took quite a bit of time to reach his car. He put his sack in the trunk, started the car and headed to the car park entrance.  When he passed one of the corners of the store he noticed three men standing beside the staff exit. They were the “shitty man”, cashier and blind man. But that time the blind man wasn’t wearing his sunglasses. The three were talking and smiling. Anthony was stunned by that picture. He understood that he had been defrauded. Anthony hissed through clenched teeth, “Sons of a bitch” and accelerated his car.

2

Afterward, he regretted that he had driven away and hadn't confronted them as soon as he had seen those swindlers.  We are all wise after the event. Anthony felt angry with himself. He decided to be more determined next time. The next time was not long in coming.

About 3 weeks later, he happened to be at the same store. When he was putting his items on the belt at the checkout, a blind man joined the queue behind Anthony. Another guy wearing a blue baseball cap lined up after the blind man. And he had fish in his shopping basket. That guy started complaining about the fish. What a surprise! Those were neither the same blind man nor the same man with the fish and nor was it the original cashier but the whole scene resembled something that Anthony had already seen.

Anthony decided to act. He raised a fuss with the cashier about quality of the meat and demanded to see the manager. The cashier offered to leave the meat but Anthony said that he was refusing to buy something at that shitty store and stepped away from the cash register. That moment the blind man began putting his basket on top of Anthony’s stuff.  As Anthony anticipated, all the contents of the blind man’s basket fell onto the floor. The man bended to pick up his stuff and his wallet dropped out of his pocket. Anthony was not surprised; he was ready. He ran up to the blind man and grabbed the wallet from the floor and started moving away saying “I’ve just dropped something”. The cashier yelled at him, “This is not yours”. “Yes, it’s mine!” Anthony yelled back.
When he was outside the store he saw through the window that the guy wearing the blue cap was handing some money to the blind man. Anthony checked that wallet. It contained 1100 rubles.

3

He saw how the cashier and the other guy helped the blind man with his basket. They didn’t give the impression of being people in cahoots with each other. “It does seem I behaved very, very badly. I could be wrong about these guys”, Antony was thinking while walking to his car. “I have to return this wallet to the blind man”, he eventually decided.

Antony walked up to the corner and began waiting for the blind man. When the man in the sunglasses was passing through the glass door, the door closed before he was through it. The door hit the man right in his shoulder. He stumbled and his glasses fell on the floor. Another customer accidentally stepped on the glasses and broke them.

Antony approached the blind man and said, “Excuse me, sir. Could we walk, I have to talk with you”. They turned around the corner of the store and paused by the staff exit. At that moment the cashier came out through the door. He looked at the two men and asked, “What happened?” Antony said, “Firstly, I would like to apologize for my unreasonable behavior …”, and he started telling the whole story.

The guy in the blue cap left the store and went to the parking lot. He started the engine and headed to the car park entrance. When he passed one of the corners of the store he noticed the three men standing beside the staff exit. At that time the blind man was not wearing his sunglasses. He was shocked by what he saw. He believed that he had been swindled. The guy hissed through clenched teeth, “Sons of a bitch” and accelerated his car.

The end

¹ - $1 approximately equals 33 Russian rubles

November, 2013