Do we really value honesty?
That is what I kept wondering about when I happened to
listen the conversation.
I was in the Saphal outlet to purchase some fruits. Delhi has this chain of Saphal and Mother Dairy Outlets in every nook of the city.
Three people – probably father, mother and son entered the
outlet. The son was in his 30s and parents in their 50s. They wanted to purchase
watermelon.
“Is it sweet?” father asked.
The man on the sales counter answered, “Sir, I cannot assure
you. If you are fortunate, it would be sweet, otherwise it won’t.”
“Oh! Stupid! What has fortune and fate to do with taste of
Watermelon?” the son exclaimed. “Why can’t you keep only sweet watermelons?” He
added irritably.
The sales man just smiled. He politely said, “Sir, how can
we do that? We try the best of the watermelons, but it is nature’s gift, we do
not have control over these things.”
Now the woman spoke, “But in some other shop I saw the man
tapping the watermelon and identifying whether it was sweet or not. Can’t you
do that? “
“Oh! Madamjee that is just a trick, a trick to satisfy you.
Was the watermelon thus tested always sweet?”
“If you don’t know, don’t teach us ...” the father was now angry.
“Ok, let us go, let us try at some other shop” the woman
said and they all stormed out, dissatisfied.
“Why did not you try to play the trick? Don't you know it?" Some other customer
asked the salesman.
“Oh! I never understand why city people do not have patience
with uncertainty. Why don’t you people value honesty?”
He looked at me.
I had no answer.
I will never have one to this question.
this is not a question of valuing honesty but that of being smartasses as in marathi/hindi one says being 'dedh shaana'
ReplyDeleteDeepakbhai, ah! I never thought of this. Interesting perspective :-)
ReplyDeletethis reminds me of a story I was told by my parents long back...a man had a fruit shop. One day he became ill and wasnt able to open his shop for a couple of days. His young son takes over the responsibility and opens the shop on the 3rd day. Any customer which comes by his shop...he tells them that the latest fruits he has are at least 2 days old..so he cant be sure if they will be as tasty as those on other shops...the customers are impressed by his honesty and buy the fruits and also become regular customers...
ReplyDeleteGuess..that was a different time...
Kunal, I enjoyed your story fully.
ReplyDeleteI guess there are always different types of people in each period. So, maybe even today there would be honest vendors and customers who appreciate that honesty.
Lovely post. Honesty needs to be valued. And people who cannot are stupid, and only add to the deterioration of society.
ReplyDeleteVetrimagal, I guess some people would always value honesty and some won't - thus maintaining the balance.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting and taking time to share your thoughts.
Do we really value honesty ?
ReplyDeleteHow to figure that out -
1) How much time, effort and money do we spend on searching for the most honest person ?
2) After finding out that person - we negotiate. Is honesty at the the most important issue during the negotiation process ?
3) After negotiation is done - we need to monitor on an ongoing basis. What do we do to ensure that THAT person is actually being honest ? How much time effort do we undertake to monitor and verify ?
Mehpaparpatti, I guess most of the times we just need someone honest and not 'the most honest person' .. because we may not be doing any business with the 'most honest person' if s/he is not operating in an area convenient to us.
ReplyDeleteI agree with points 2 and 3 - shows that many times we do not value honesty!!