A trick employed in souks and markets everywhere is to thrust apparent samples, or surpluses, of sweets, fabric or tobacco at you and then claim you misunderstood the transaction and you have to pay, over the odds, for the “gift”.A variant of the same that seems to have wandered beyond the bazaar is that of the “grateful shoeshiner”. You pick up a shoeshiner’s brush that he dropped in the road, and he is so grateful you have saved his livelihood he insists on shining your shoes – for free, of course, you think.
Wrong! When your shoes are gleaming - as you are, at the freebie - he will demand grossly inflated payment. Fellow shoeshiners (Members of the local Buffer's Union) soon appear to help to reinforce his claim. This routine has reached virtual plague proportions in Istanbul.
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