Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Incident at a fruit store this morning

While at a Vietnamese fruit market this morning, I heard a man shouting at one of the shop assistants. Apparently the shop assistant saw his daughter touching the cut watermelons on display and she tried to stop her. The man claimed his daughter was pinched on the arm. The sales assistant apologized unreservedly, but the man just wanted to vent his anger. That would have been the end of the scene, except that the owner of the shop came into the picture and denied right away that the little girl was pinched (and the owner wasn't even there to witness it). I spent another few minutes half-amusedly witnessing the exchange of words, which went something like this....
Man: Your assistant pinched my daughter.
Owner: No, she didn't
Man: Yes, she did. See, my daughter is crying because she was pinched.
Owner: How do you know she was pinched?
Man: My daughter told me. She is a kid. Kids don't lie.
Owner: Do you always believe that kids don't lie?
Man: Yes, I do.

I can't help thinking that the two adults were acting like kids. The man's assertions were incredulous. One, his daughter could have cried out of fright, rather than out of being pinched. Honestly, she did not scream at all; if she was really pinched that hard. Two, kids don't lie? I'll have to think about that.

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