Banter: A Fishy Deal!

I never had the slightest element of doubt about the professionalism and fair practices of the fish markets of the great city. Those markets have always been places of joy for the fish eaters, not only for the rich assortment of the fishes—from the biggest to the smallest varieties—but also for the unfailing freshness and taste of the fishes. The priciest is almost always the most coveted Hilsa or the Ilish which is never less than a thousand bucks per kg and going upward depending on the size. The next local attraction is the Katla the cut pieces of the biggest size of which usually cost from four hundred to five hundred per kg—on the busy Sunday the prices hit the upper ceiling. Taking into account other fishes like Rohu and the smaller ones the markets somehow manage to fit everybody’s budget, except of course, for the highly spirited locals who prefer to go for the Ilish or the rather scarce and equally pricey Bhetki varieties only come what may, i.e. the money in their pockets!

So, with the usual joy and excitement, that Sunday morning I went to the fish market and approached the trader that I normally frequented thanks to his personal attention and the immensely richly fresh fish he offered. Immediately, I became very happy as I beheld two longish cut pieces of the belly of probably a very big Katla and no less for the warm smile the trader gave me. For the uninitiated fish eaters or fish buyers, I must reiterate that the belly pieces of real big fishes are the tastiest part, always enriched with fish fats  which, per almost all medical studies, are very good for health. So, I asked him to weigh the two pieces without wasting any time. He didn’t have the digital weighing machine, but only the traditional two-pan scale or the palla.

I was a bit surprised when he added a normal piece to the two belly pieces I ordered, and the fish pan outweighed the one-kg weight by a small bit. He told me it was one kilo the bill for which would be five hundred bucks. I nodded at him, and thought he added that piece to make it one kilo. However, I was in for more surprises!

Instead of scaling or cleaning up the portions immediately as all traders normally do, he started cutting the portions into the customized pieces per my standing instructions. And he didn’t cut the other piece that he added to the palla earlier!

Assembling all the customized pieces, he then started cleaning up piece by piece; completing the task quite faster than I expected, he put those pieces into the fine polythene packet neatly. As I took out the five-hundred note from my shirt packet I suddenly stopped on my action.

He made the packet ready, but did not include the piece he added during weighing.

“Hello friend! Why didn’t you put that piece?” I asked him as righteously as I thought.

The trader gave me his usual smile, but not as spontaneously warm as always, I perceived. “That piece is not for you, Sir!”

“But how’s that? It was one kilo after including that piece!”

“No, no sir! I used it only as a habit, maybe unawares!”

"Now you're fully aware! So make amends!"

"Okay, if you insist!" He acted instantly, surprising me. He weighed the extra portion and announced the verdict, "it's more than three hundred grams!

That confounded my confusion and I was steadily getting angry and angrier.

“But then, the two pieces I bought must be much less than one kilo!” I retorted, for I was genuinely befuddled by the methodology he used and  I witnessed, and why.

The trader seemed a bit annoyed now as well as the other customer waiting patiently for his portions. “Okay! If you have doubts I’ll weigh it again!” And he did that, putting up the cleaned customized pieces on the scale. I saw the weight coming to slightly less than nine hundred grams.

“So you see now! It’s much less than one kg? Come on old friend, include the piece that you correctly added.” I said.

“No sir! That piece isn’t yours!” he handed out the packet to me now.

“Okay, in that case take money for nine hundred grams!” I offered the note to him.

Seemingly angry now, the trader put back the packet on his wooden stand and said looking up at the other customer perhaps for  support. “What are you saying sir? Haven’t you seen I cleaned the pieces in front of your own eyes?” he again looked at the other customer for moral support.

I was not in a mood to give up yet! “That’s part of your job! Even otherwise, those scales hardly have any weight!” then, with my temper rising I tried to brief him on buying chicken! “You see, I’m buying fish, not chicken! When you buy a live chicken, the cut portions weigh much less than the original weight! But we don’t complain or ask to weigh again, because price of live chicken is always less than buying cut-piece chicken!”

The trader looked resigned now. “Okay! You take your money back and I keep the cut pieces whatever be my losses!”

That made me raging angry and I ordered, “you can’t do that! That’s my fish and I’ll have it, even if it means some loss of money!”

The other customer piped in this time saying to the trader, “yes, don’t do that!” 

So I took the packet back, he kept the money and I walked away with the parting remark without waiting for his reaction and making a vow never to return to that fish shop, “damn! I never had such a fishy experience before anywhere in the fish markets of the city!”

 

As I inched my way through to the vegetable market I kept on wondering! Why did he do what he did? He perhaps made about fifty bucks more by those unique adjustments during the weighing procedure! But why risk losing a regular customer for that paltry sum? Then I thought, maybe he does it on some days, and doing that with quite a few gullible customers he must be making a good amount as windfall. I have no answers to the riddle!