ignorance is worth 20 yuan.
it's not blissful, but if all you really want is a nice cup of iced coffee, you'll have to fish around in your pocket for more money, because that twenty just won't cut it. (what?)
so i went up north yesterday to meet daisy, and, while i was waiting, went to a nice little coffee place near the bus stop. they didn't speak peter dialect, which meant no conversing, just the basics. it was 15 kuai (about US$2). coffee is expensive in china.
i handed them a twenty, and almost immediately, they gave it back to me and spoke something in not-peter-dialect. i asked them if it was fake money, and they just told me i had to change it. so i gave them a fifty. confused.
later, daisy arrived and we asked them why they couldn't take my twenty. daisy and i spent ten minutes looking at another bill and comparing it to the reject bill. turns out we got it mixed up, and were convinced that the fake one was real. shows how good we'd be at running a business.
anyway, we talked to the waitress and she told us how she knew. it seemed so obvious after that.
but the real question is: what do i do with the fake one? i know it's illegal to use it, but someone else illegalled me. shouldn't i spend it, just to balance out the universe? or maybe i should throw it into a big pile of money so i don't know when i use it. but that's US$3! i don't want to kiss that goodbye just because someone played me!
sigh. life is so hard.
comments:
Any idea where you got the fake?
kate | June 22 @ 4:32am
no, not really. i'm guessing it was a big place that doesn't check their money at all, and moves too much to notice. like a big super market. i figure that's where i'll return it :)
THE Lowly Peon | June 22 @ 8:47am
so you decided to spend it again?
The Invincible Blab | June 22 @ 11:17am
There's been an outbreak of counterfeits around here. At my store, we now have to marker-test every bill above $5 (Have you seen the fancy new $5 bills yet, Peter?). Everyone so far has been (or at least acted) shocked to find out they were trying to pay with fake money. Unfortunately for them, they can't really try to spend it again because of the big black marker streak. One lady begged us to take a counterfeit $100 bill because it's all she had that week to spend on her family. I was almost tempted, but if I forget to check and miss a counterfeit, it comes out of my paycheck.
kate | June 22 @ 3:37pm
yikes.
and no, i haven't seen the new $5s. are they still green? or are they weird and shiny?
THE Lowly Peon | June 23 @ 8:57am
Still green, but a little shiny. And the five in the bottom right corner is GIANT and PURPLE.
kate | June 23 @ 9:12am