In San francisco, have you ever paid less than half of the taxi fare for a ride from Bay area to City ? Are you saying 'Nah, that is impossible!'? Wait till you read this incident below.
Our friend lands from India on a Saturday night for a week long meeting starting Monday. Obviously he wants to spend the Sunday usefully by visiting San francisco city. He collected all the details to go from Hyatt Summerfield suites to Pier 39. His plan was to take a taxi till Belmont and take the train, blah blah. He called for a taxi to go to Belmont. The driver asked him about why he wanted to get dropped at Belmont (Am sure that till date he is regretting asking the question :)).
Our friend tells him the need for doing this. The rest of the conversation is as follows:
Driver: Why dont I take you to the city. You can pay me 5-10$ less than the meter.
Our friend: How much will it cost?
Driver: around 80$
Our friend: No, no, I cant pay that much. my budget is very less
Driver: How much can you pay?
Our friend: Not anything more than 40$
Driver: Pay me 60 $. I will take you
Our friend: No, no... I cant
Driver: Will you pay 50$?
Our friend: Last and final, I can only pay 45$
Driver: Ok.. I will take you.
They reached the destination. Our friend gives the driver a 50$.
Driver: How much should I pay you back?
Our friend: 5$
Poor fellow! He gives the change, curses himself for offering a ride to our friend and goes away.
Is it hard to digest? I know, I know, I felt the same way when I heard it the first time.
And the story doesnot end here - Our friend comes back to the hotel and we all met for dinner. The other colleague who was with him narrated the whole incident to us and while we were all looking at him with total disbelief, this guy says "haan yaar, The driver made me spend 45$ while I would have done this trip for less. Thats why I did not give him a tip". Hah!
Are you asking me if our friend is a Gujju? You are absolutely right. Who else can manage such a thing in a foreign land???
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