There used to be a saying “Cash Is King” in economics and that seems to still be a byword with tourists from some cultures ….
And while I might agree that the idea of ‘paying by cash’ (i.e. saving up and buying with no debt), is a better idea than bashing the credit cards, sometimes it can backfire as two gentlemen from China discovered.
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| Cash Is King In Some Cultures |
And while I might agree that the idea of ‘paying by cash’ (i.e. saving up and buying with no debt), is a better idea than bashing the credit cards, sometimes it can backfire as two gentlemen from China discovered.
They raised suspicions when they kept settling their hotel and bar bills
in Paris with one-Euro coins …. The hotel owner, fearing that he was
being given counterfeits, called the police who came to the hotel.
In the tourists rooms they found a further 3,700 one-Euro coins ….. and detained the two Chinese men.
However all was not as it seemed. Further enquiries verified the two men’s story, which was that they bought the Euros from a scrap metal dealer. It seems that thousands of European cars are shipped to China for scrap every year – these are searched before being scrapped, and of all the valuables found (which includes phones and MP3’s etc), by far the most common valuables left inside are one-Euro coins.
In the tourists rooms they found a further 3,700 one-Euro coins ….. and detained the two Chinese men.
However all was not as it seemed. Further enquiries verified the two men’s story, which was that they bought the Euros from a scrap metal dealer. It seems that thousands of European cars are shipped to China for scrap every year – these are searched before being scrapped, and of all the valuables found (which includes phones and MP3’s etc), by far the most common valuables left inside are one-Euro coins.
These are collected up and sold by the metal dealers to people wanting to come to Europe.
The men were let free, but apparently advised to change the Euros into
notes.
There’s probably a moral in this tale, but I don’t know what it is …. But I will note that its only 50 years at most, since cash was still king for most of Western Europe as well.
There’s probably a moral in this tale, but I don’t know what it is …. But I will note that its only 50 years at most, since cash was still king for most of Western Europe as well.
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