Exhibit A
He said they do this once a year, and I apologized for not having understood sooner, but admitted that we had just moved in, so this was all new to us. At the time, I figured that if he had made it into the building, he must have gotten "official" approval from someone - la guardienne, someone else in the building. So I pulled out a 10-spot and handed it to him. He said, "This isn't enough." Which is weird - if you're taking donations, shouldn't anything be enough? I asked how much people usually give. "50." Unfortunately (for him, not for me), I only had the 10 on me. So I said I could mail him 50 (thinking I'd consult with the neighbors first), and asked for the 10 back. "No, this is fine," he said, and handed me the receipt you see above. No mailing address. Just a few stamps and a typically French signature.
We were surprised and confused enough to look into tipping your garbagemen, and found nothing. (The closest we found was this explanation of situations in which you should tip in France.) Can anyone tell us whether this was legit? Or did we just get scammed?
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Well, I lived in France for 4 years and was never asked to tip my eboueurs . . . but I still think he earned the 10E for his creative approach. : ) On the other hand, it has the 'tampon'. That makes it official in my book.
ReplyDeleteThe whole thing makes me want to stop the next "Propreté de Paris" worker I see and ask him whether this is legit. Or ask the original guy where he got such an official-looking stamp!
ReplyDeleteThe fact that you think this may not have been a scam is a testament to your blind innocence and naivete. Well done!
ReplyDeleteIt's true. This happens to me several times a year, even when the scam occurs in English.
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