The two owners34
At one place I wanted to buy three saris. They had their price and I had my own figure. They were asking for 300 rupees and I said, “130!”They said that in their lifetime they had never sold any sari for 130 rupees.
I said, “Then do it this time. You will remember it.”
We were talking in Bengali. Then the old man I was talking to came down to 240. Inwardly I was hesitating a little, but outwardly, in my eyes, he could not see my hesitation. I said, “No, I don’t want it!”
Finally, he said, “All right.” Then one of his workers got mad at him for coming down so drastically. The other man said, “He is not the owner. I am the owner.”
Then the old man said, “No, I am the owner!”
At the time, I was thinking that maybe I would go up to 140 or 170. But when the giggling started, I decided I was not going to go up in price because their egos were fighting.
Finally I went to another store and began browsing. The old man from the first store came up to me and said, “I am the owner.”
I said, “What difference does it make if you can’t sell the saris at the price we agreed on?”
He said, “No, I will be able to sell them to you at that price.”
We went back to his store. I thought that the other man would be furious, but he said, “This fellow is telling me that he has agreed to sell you these saris for 130 rupees. So what can I do?”
So I got the saris for 130 rupees.
LS 125. 2 March 1986↩
