And Then There Was One

So I took Mel to the airport on Monday night. The rickshaw guy originally agreed to two-hundred rupees and when we got to the airport he tried to say three-hundred. We argued for a quick minute about the set amount agreed upon and then he says "please 50". I gave him the two that we agreed upon and walked away but with a little concern that he was gonna find me later when I hit the street for a return ride. So I walked her to the door and that was that. I was definitely sad to see her go and at the same time excited for a solo adventure. So I went downstairs and got a pre-paid taxi back to Paharganj where I'm staying. As I was getting dropped off the guy who wasn't even driving said "50 rupees". I was like "WHAT? this is a pre-paid taxi" for which he replied "No, fifty rupees", to which I replied "Fuck That" and started walking. I have to say that the haggling for a fair price is an acceptable, even fun part of surviving here but this blatant even aggressive way of scamming money is starting to get under my skin. On a few of our bus rides the driver actually tried to make me pay to store my luggage under the bus. I almost fell for it but when I really started questioning why I paid for a ticket that didn't include luggage he started to back down saying "I don't know", that's when I started to understand all the little scams that go on around here and how many, less assertive people get took on the daily.

So that was just a little venting from an exhausted bandito