Of course, Fahim later tells me he was pulling my leg. He was never serious about stealing it. He just wanted to torment me. Waaaaaaaaaah! I’m so gullible!!!!
But then, no doubt, some of you are wondering why we didn’t just buy the ten or twelve pack. I mean, these are consumable goods, which means that, eventually, they’ll be consumed. Right? Uh, yeah, it doesn’t work that way here. *rolls eyes*
Yes, I love him dearly, I really do. 🙂
Um, Fahim’s cheap.
It’s a very Sri Lankan trait. People here are poor, so they tend to buy only what they need.
Example: Some people go buy their food every day. One cup of rice, 1/2 cup of mung beans, 1 onion, a few cloves of garlic, etc.
In all fairness, for those who are paid daily, including those who work intermittent jobs, that may be all the cash they have and they can’t afford to buy a bag of rice. But then, if they don’t work one day, they might not have food to eat the next. For many, it’s very much a hand to mouth existence.
Many people here are, quite reasonably so, skeptical of purchasing more than they need in the immediate term. While Fahim’s upbringing wasn’t that poor, it’s a pervasive attitude. The anti-materialistic, perhaps.
Another consideration is the bug factor. We get bugs in all sorts of things, like rice, mung beans (green gram), chick peas, lentils, and who knows what else. That stuff simply can not be stored here for any amount of time.
