This is a tale of how Chuan Lui and I got cheated of $5 and $4 respectively.

As we walked into Bugis, we were stopped by a man of around 30 perhaps with a partner. He started acting all nice and friendly with us. He flashed us some letters apparently from some ministry(I had a split second glance at it later on and I saw it was from the Ministry of Manpower). He asked us if we took drugs and we said no. At this point of time, I thought he was doing a survey. Then he went on rambling about how some children are pitiful because of various reasons and as he went on, I had this feeling he was going to ask us to donate. He fished out a pair of pens for us and then asked us to “give him 4-6 dollars”.

Being the nice people we are and probably because of the awkward situation, we gave $5 and $4 resprctively, thinking that it was for some charity. Then he fished out 2 more pens and walked away hastily like he has done something wrong. (Normally, when you donate money to someone, he or she will not be walking away from you hastily will he/she?)

Then, when we read the slip of paper, we realized, to our horror, that it was not for charity. Where is the “product” that the man apparently sold us (unless you count the pen costing $2.50)?

Spoilt my day. So next time someone asks you for donation, however legitimate it looks like, please be more critical and skeptical and ask questions. The man seem to target gullible and innocent students like us.

And I can’t find the so called “Crops International” on google.

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