**This is not Piet's stall, but rather an example of roadside stalls here taken off the internet. In the countryside around our town there are many stalls on the side of the road where people sell fruit, flowers, honey etc. A colleague bee keeper sells his honey in a little stall in front of his house. His name is Piet, a nice easy going older fellow. Piet saw this lady on a scoot mobile (electric chair scooter many older people use), she took a jar of honey, put it in the basket on the front of her scoot mobile and put something in the money box. Piet became suspicious and after she left, he quickly checked the money box .... 45 cents was all there was in it. He grabbed his bicycle and went after her. He got the lady to stop and asked her why she didn’t pay the full price of 5 Euro’s. She insisted that she paid the full price saying, “It must have fallen beside the box”. Piet of course had seen this was not the case and asked her how often she used this trick at roadside stalls. Anyway, she got Piet very angry with her attitude and here it comes. He took the honey jar out of her basket, opened it up, poured some honey on her head and told her, “This is how much honey you can buy for 45 cents !”, then left her sitting there and peddled back home. Now, this is the stuff you dream of doing to thieves but never really do....but Piet did it ! _______ Right then, before you go and charge me with plagiarism, I want to make it clear that this anecdote was written by my Bride. This is a true story that happened just last week.
Start selling online, and just avoid all of this forever, (as well as cut out every middle men too, if any existed before)...
Wow!! Good for Piet. Here they take a photo or a video of the person and post it online. Revenge. One woman had her stand vandalized, her money box stolen. She posted her complaint online and all the townspeople made a hew and a cry about it. Eventually her money box was returned! Empty of course, but the box was handmade and worth more than the $ inside it. It is now locked down. Another woman had her patio furniture stolen from her front yard. It is possible that someone thought it was placed it there for free. (People do that here, especially since the 'Take it or Leave it' section of the town dump is closed due to the pandemic). Anyway, another hew and cry. She put up signs in her yard asking for the furniture back. The local town website was decrying the theft, etc. She never got it back, but someone in town donated a set to her that they no longer needed. A nice set too. So it is now in her front yard again.
That was an interesting couple of stories, Cayu. I will never understand the criminal mind. We have stealing from the little stalls here as well...much more the last 10 years. I mean, it has always gone on, but there was much less of it years ago. I like how whole towns or neighbourhoods get together to expose the criminal. It is impressive. I told my Bride what you said and she just beamed from ear to ear.
The petty theivety of $7.50 or $15 or whatever from small outdoor stands I chalk up to drug money. Very sad. It is a problem here in the states. I don't know about the Netherlands. That woman, though, on her scooter!!! And the brazenness of it when she was confronted! She did deserve that honey on her head. I bet she won't do it again to him. If he had just taken the honey back, she might have stolen from him again. It's like the attitude is: "my needs are more important than yours". Imagine if you were married to a person like that??!!
I don't know about it being drug money here--these places are so far out in the country....not in inner cities. Here, at least, I believe that it is opportunists and...you are exactly right about the attitudes--Re: the "I, me, mine-culture". I'll bet that the scooter woman has been getting away with this for years, as most folks see an elderly woman in a scooter and never think about them being a thief in the first instance. I'll tell you Cayu--I have just about had it with this selfish/egocentric and anti-social behaviour that I am seeing at the moment. I am afraid that the Corona virus and the things surrounding it is exposing ugly hidden traits. It is disappointing to me, I wasn't aware that there was so much of this type of behaviour out there. We even see this on our Allotment Complex-- A donor asked me the other day if I had found the bag of beans that he had left for me to take to the Food Bank. I had not, and he said well that's odd, I put a 5 kilo bag for you the afternoon before". Someone had just taken it !! It leaves you scratching your head and asking--"What sort of person steals from the poor"? Well, you could be right about the woman and her deeds. She may well not take from Piet again. chortle. Yeah, and the thought of being married to a person like that---??!! Awful. I am afraid that I would have to break it off.
Just a thought--with her attitude her spouse may have "helped" her into needing that scooter! I, too, am tired of self-centered, selfish, and silly people. I try to be kind and tolerant, but sometimes it's very hard. Sjoerd, someone who would steal from the poor 1) might not have understood the beans were intended for the food bank and thought they were excess intended for anyone who wanted some, or 2) was poor themselves and needed food so badly they would steal to get it. I've had people stop me on the street when I was carrying bags of garden produce and ask what I had in those bags. One lady was leaving the food bank with a small bag of canned food and dried pasta, and asked me what is that. I told her they were cucumbers picked that morning and I was taking them in for distribution. She said she was diabetic, and just loved cucumbers, so I gave her two. She may have been "scamming" me but I didn't care. A quote from My Fair Lady: Arthur Doolittle said "the undeserving poor have needs, just as much as the widow that collects from five different charities for the same dead husband." Deserving, undeserving, I don't have the time or patience to go into the person's history. If they are polite, they get whatever I can share. If they are of the "gimme" type, they don't get anything!
I see what you are saying, Jane. I would like to say that on the Allotment Complex we have been collecting for the Food Bank for more than ten years and we have an agreement with all the gardeners that if they want to donate they either come in on our pick-up day or leave it in their garden's gateway. Everyone knows this. Number 2 could possibly be possible; however I know all the members, and I just can't imagine it. In this country, "we have enough for everyone's need, but not everyone's greed", a famous person once said. That was a great posting, Jane. Politeness goes a long, long way, doesn't it.
