Well this is another one for my diary - and more in the sense of
feeling quite stupid after the event. This happened a few weeks before our trip
to the US and my ears still burn when I think about it.
We were in town (my favorite part of it) running our errands - one of which
was to exchange a rather large sum of Dirhams to US Dollars, for our forthcoming
trip. Normally I would not carry a large amount of US Dollars in cash, but since
we were going to drop our son off, I was aware that there might be a requirement
for Dollars in Cash to open Bank accounts, University costs, etc.
The Dirham has been pegged to the US Dollar for ages and hence I was
not expecting the rate differential between exchange houses to be much. However,
considering the amount I wanted to exchange, I felt logically, that even a slight
variation could add up to a reasonable amount.
I also wanted to show my financial savvy and prove a point to my
wife about the value of money. As you can see this value for money is a 'big'
thing for me! Anyway that day I made her roam around with me from one exchange
house to the other, to compare the rates being offered. Mind you this was at midday in August - the hottest month of the year
and soon her temper and patience were fraying at the edges. After
having gone to three of these shops I think that she had had enough. But I
persevered, and told her that there was ‘one’ more I wanted to go to. A friend
used this particular exchange house frequently for money transfers and
claimed that it offered the best rate.
It was a very small shop and there were no other customers when we entered. So when
I enquired about the rate, all four staff behind the counters latched into
our conversation. To my surprise the rate was higher than what we had been
offered, so we turned to leave. As we were about to exit, the manager walked
across and asked why we were leaving. I told him I was not getting the rate I
wanted, and he asked me as to how many US Dollars I wanted to buy. On hearing
the amount he asked his staff what rate they had offered me and
immediately gave me a better rate. However that still did not match the best that I had been quoted.
On telling him that - he asked me what rate I was expecting,
and when I told him - in the blink of an eye, literally in the blink of an eye,
he replied - "But sir that only makes a difference of Two Dirhams. We
want your business sir and the two dirhams should not make a huge difference to
you".
Now my calculation skills were obviously no match for his, (remember that we
are talking about numbers going into four digits after the decimal) so to stall
for time as my rusty brain tried to figure out how much this two dirham
difference would actually amount to, I replied rather pompously that 'it makes
a difference to me'. He could not believe his ears and "in retrospect' I am sure all
the staff were as surprised at this comment from rather well-heeled customers.
"But sir, it is only two Dirhams" - was his response.
When I countered (rather sanctimoniously) that I was happier with the rate I was getting at the other place, he just shook his head and told us that he
had offered the best he could and it was our wish what we wanted to do.
So we walked out (me in a huff) and I turned to my wife and said "Babes let us go back to the place that gave us the best rate. I know it is quite a walk in this heat but when we total up this difference over the entire amount we want to exchange
- I am sure we will be able to buy a pair of shoes or something". I thought the difference of two dirhams was per
Hundred Dirhams or Dollars or something, and that overall it would add up to a
decent amount. She grudgingly agreed to the traipse back - on financial issues my wife puts a lot of faith in me.
To show her my savvy, while on the street and in the sun, I asked her to take out her iPhone and calculate the
amount that we had saved. I started to dictate to her the numbers so
that she would calculate the amount for herself and forever be in awe of my
prudence. As she finished inputting the numbers, I asked her - "So
what does the difference amount to? She was gazing into the iPhone and
with a frown on her face replied - "Two dirhams"! I naturally thought that she had made a mistake in feeding in the numbers but despite
repeated efforts to recalculate (the last one by myself) - this magic number did not change.
Seeing the sheepish look on my face my wife could contain herself no longer and burst out into peels of laughter, rubbing salt into my wounds. She insisted that we go back
to that shop and exchange our currency, but my bruised man ego could not consider
that. In retrospect I think it was the speed of response that threw me off - I just could not believe that, in this age of computers and calculators someone or anyone actually, could calculate that fast mentally. Yes - it was his fault - had he taken his time to respond I might have actually transacted with him.
Anyway abashed and cowed down we plodded back to the shop with the best
offer and saved ........... TWO DIRHAMS. Forget new shoes - I could not even get my shoes shined in that amount.
And so I drowned my embarrassment in a cup of saada chai (roadside tea) -
blowing up half my savings in the bargain!
