A Word in Your Eye

The news here in Japan recently had a short piece about a crime. They had video from one of the stores. Apparently the man with the white hat covering his face went up to a checkout counter in a department store or grocery, and asked to look at the ichi man en (10,000 yen) bills. I'm not sure whether he said he was looking at the numbers or looking for a nice crisp bill -- people here in Japan often want lucky numbers or crisp bills to pass out. Anyway, the cashier very helpfully got out a stack of bills -- each worth about $100 -- and handed it to him to look at! He ruffled through the stack, then gave it back to her. And pointed to something while she was putting them away. As she looked away, in the video, they circled his left hand dipping into his pocket to drop the bill that he had palmed.

Apparently he managed to get something like 50,000 yen during that visit to the store. And they warned us that they think it is a gang operating.

I sat and laughed. I thought about walking up to a cashier in America and telling them that I would like to look at the hundred dollar bills in their register. I'm reasonably certain that they would not hand me a stack of bills to look at. Indeed, I suspect I would find myself talking to security people or police very quickly.

There are times that the friendly, cooperative society here in Japan maybe leaves people just a bit too trusting?