I got ripped off.

Daniel The evening before the Indian drowned I finally learned my lesson. I got ripped off.

When I walked home from the cinema (I saw the Davinci Code, didn't like it, the book is much better than the movie) I bumped into an Indian guy. As usual our conversation started with the questions "Where are you from?" shortly followed by "Your name?", "You like India?", "You married?", and the like...

After being trough this standard interrogation process, the guy told me he's working for the Indian railways, his uncle is in hospital, and he wants to invite me for tea the next day. So far so good, but after talking for another 10 minutes (he was also heading to the same area as I was) the topic slipped towards the current school vacations ending this week and how hard it is to get a train ticket. Up till here it was basically all true, other travellers confirmed that even the tourist quotas for some trains are booked out already.

But then he offered me to help and to get me a ticket from the employees quota, and I agreed. Well, at the railway station he asked me to give him 1500Rs (about 30 Us$) and wait next to the newspaper stand for about 10 minutes. This guy was really clumsy, and he was kind of nice. So I thought I'd risk it. I thought I could judge people, and I was pretty sure he would not run away.

Well, I was wrong. Waiting for 70 minutes I learned my lesson. But I'm still disappointed. He seemed really honest.