Real Story: FAKE MONEY

Before pandemic one of my stress reliever is to walk around Colon.

In colon, you would see a lot of street vendors and you would also see malls and bigger stores all over the place. This is where almost all of the people would go especially if your money id budgetted and you have to buy a lot of things.

Of course, because vendors tend to offer cheaper price than those on malls you have to expect that what you can buy there won't be as nice as those with brands still usable though.

As I walk around one normal scenario that I would noticed is when people would ask for discounts especially if they would buy 2 or more pcs. In our language we call it "HANGYO".

Example, if 10 pcs of shirts for 110 pesos each then you could HANGYO or ask for lesser price since you would have buy more than 1 pc. So instead of 110 the vendor could give it to you 100-105 pesos each instead! Amazing! Yeah? Compare it to mall that it is all fixed price!

Note: 100 pesos is equivalent to $2 if we are to convert it.

Now, as I continue to just walk around I would normally reach Carbon. Carbon is the biggest wet market in our area which you would see a lot of vendors selling vegetables, meat, fruits in streets or stalls but you could also see other street vendors selling babies clothes, curtains and a lot more!

I can say it is my stress reliever because I love to see those cute lil things hanging there like hairclips, ballpen, sticky notes and etc. It is also pretty cheap that you could be tempted to buy a lot. Way before I would indeed buy a lot and resell it to my officemates with a profit of 5 peso each from its regular price. Extra income yeah?!

So going back to asking discounts. So whenever I buy goods in colon or carbon before I really ask for discounts especially when buying things that I want to resell so I could earn more profit or maybe veggies or fruits so I could bring a lot at home which could last for a couple of days for the whole family.

But there is this one incident that really made me minimize and almost STOP doing it.

One time in Carbon as I was walking around I noticed people gathering to one vendor, as curious as I was I tried to sneak and see what is the commotion all about coz maybe her products are on SALE or something.

There, I saw the vendor crying. She is crying her heart out because there was a person who bought some kilo of veggies from her and gave her a 1000 peso bill!

1000 peso bill is equivalent to 10 pcs of 100 peso bills since 100 is equivalent to $2 then 10x2 is equals to $20.

Why do you think the vendor is crying?

Because she was given a FAKE 1000 PESO BILL!!!

Imagine that? She was given fake money and because she is kinda old and it was almost night time she wasn't able to clearly distinguish or checked if it is a real money.

A 1000 peso bill is already a big amount! She was whinning so loud saying that it would be so hard for her now to get back to what she lost because for one, that person bought a worth of 200 pesos of the products she is selling and she gave 800 pesos change so she really lost 1000 pesos in just a snap!

She only has 2 pesos profit on each products because she don't want to overprice! While crying so loud she was even asking if how can she pay the jeepney driver who helped her carry all her products from her house to Carbon since she promised to pay for his services once he fetch her up.

I almost cried hearing this because I realize what if some people like me would ask for discounts given that less profit she set?

With that, a lot of people gave a lil amount to the old lady. She was so thankful while some who really saw the incident or have witnessed it bought her products a lil higher than the regular price.

She ended up crying a lil more because she was thankful for all those who have helped her.

"Humanity is still present so we should not lose hope"