Wondering what this post is about? Hmm … so finally I too fell into the trap, after a cool decade of driving. I am referring to the great petrol pump prank. My dad had a surgery and I was returning from the hospital early one morning. Needed fuel, so drove straight into the pump. Usually there would be one guy to whom I would specify how much fuel I needed and also hand over my credit card for billing purposes. He would fill in the fuel and then do the needful (read that as never give me a bill 🙂 )
So today there were two guys, and I asked one guy to get Rs.700/- worth of fuel filled up. I also gave him my card and he started asking me questions which beyond a point sounded strange to me. He asked me if I needed a bill, he asked me then if I needed the car number on the bill. I must state here that I have never got such a question in my life so far anywhere leave alone a petrol pump! Now who the hell would put in the car number on a bill and for what reasons? Atleast he set me thinking to buy himself some time.
It is then that the other guy told me he had filled the fuel. I looked up and saw that the meter read Rs.100. I told him that I needed Rs.700 and not Rs.100. Another six hundred later he again pointed to the meter which read Rs.600. And told me he had done his job. Its then I realized I was the bakra of the day. I wanted him to realize that I was not a worthless guy! So this time I decided to do gandhigiri on him. I just asked him only one question:
I told him: “I would you ask you only one question, only one time, and I want an honest number from you only one time and nothing more than that. Tell me did you REALLY fill in fuel for the first Rs.100/- or was it just a fake drama of meter fixing ?
He then replied: “ Sorry sir.”
And then the unthinkable happens. He fills in another Rs.100 worth of fuel and smiles at me. I told him a few more things after that on how not to ruin the name and fame of the IBP petrol pump in Koramangala which has served me so far in life so well. I also told him not to try such tricks on customers who are regulars to the pump and know how things go on. To that to my utter surprise he casually remarked to his friend thus:
“Hey lets not play this trick on regular customers!”
I was pretty tired that day, so I went to meet the manager a few days later. I spoke to him about the incident and he asked me to look around the pump. He had replaced a whole bunch of guys who were into this organized racket and replaced them with new people. The people who he trusted had betrayed him! This is not the only place and time where people like me and you are fleeced. Just spend two minutes to think of all the places where you are conned. And you would be surprised that the list of such places you realized is a pretty huge one!
