The first piece of advice that I was given in India was to trust no one! If a person cannot trust the police than who can they trust? This is a very hard concept for me to grasp as I have always lived by the rule that everybody is trustworthy unless I discover otherwise. This is not the case here!
What interests and confuses me is the level of trust that peole have in me yet I do not and cannot allow myself to trust others?! While in Leh, a city in the north of India I went into a shop to call home and put pictures on a CD. All of this cost 350 Rs (about 4 pounds sterling) which is a fair amount of money. When I got off the phone I realised that Kay had left the shop and she had our bag with my wallet. I explained to the guy and made to sit down and wait for Kay's return however the guy ushered me out telling me to go find "my friend". This was incredible to me as I could have walked away leaving that guy 350 rs out of pocket. He had some ultimate faith that I would return and I would pay him.
This level of trust in me astounds me given that I have to remember not to trust people (esp those trying to sell me something!!) It will take some time for me to get familiar with this and to realise that when the "tout" outside the train station tells me to train is cancelled and he will take me where I need to go for 1000 Rs I must NOT TRUST HIM!!
PS. I did go back to the shop ... I did pay the guy ... just if ye where interested in how the story ended!!
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