The weird shopkeeper

“Go, get yourself a packet of maggi,” I thrust a Nu. 10 note in my daughter’s hand. My sister immediately pulls my daughter’s hand to stop her. “Take Nu. 5 more,you never know how much this strange lady is gonna charge,” and she then sends my daughter who wants to eat maggi for breakfast. I tell my ignorant sister that a packet of maggi costs only ten ngultrum. “You don’t know that aunty,” she retorts and goes on to explain how the lady in the shop across her house charges extra for everything. The things she has to share about that lady shopkeeper is so hilarious that one would really want to hear more.
Everything in her shop costs above the MRP and if you ever make the mistake of taking things on credit, you can be assured that you would have to pay for even those commodity that you didn’t purchase during that particular shopping day.
Not only does that lady charge extra for all the commodity she sells but if the buyer is small boy like my nephew she takes double the amount for one commodity; One from the little boy and second time from my sister when she goes to buy some other commodity. My sister who is normally shy and less of a talker has had a tiff following many such incidences. I had a hearty laugh when she narrated the dialogues that passed on between the two of them. I had to double check on the tone my sister used to really confirm that the shopkeeper lady had indeed infuriated a calm and peaceful person like my sister.
Following the tiff, now whenever my nephew goes to buy his snacks from the shop, that lady sends him empty handed. Now he goes all the way over to the lane below their house just to buy a packet of chips because the lady wouldn’t sell them anything, not even a pin!
It is not just my sister and her family who has to bear the brunt of that shopkeeper’s way of conducting business. My sister’s upstairs neighbor who is a bachelor had gone to buy a phone voucher once and guess what that shopkeeper did. If you said “didn’t sell the voucher!” then bingo! You are right and you know why she didn’t sell the voucher? “Bhai never buys anything from my shop despite being my neighbor, so I don’t have voucher for you.” Isn’t this simply intimidating?
I wait for my daughter to return with her maggi while the upstairs angay walks in my sister’s place with her grandson dangling by her arms. Hearing us talk about their neighbor shopkeeper, she has many such incidences to add. Let it suffice to say that the lady does all what I’ve mentioned above to many of her neighbors that’s why we hardly find anybody going to her shop.
My sister shares another anecdote about another very weird shopkeeper. My sister’s friend who is a teacher in this place had shared this experience. An elderly couple had the only shop in one of the remote places in Chukha Dzongkhag. That elderly couple would not sell any of the items on the shelf if there is only last few last pieces of it. Even if one pointed to the commodity on the shelf, they would insist that the customer buy something that is abundant in stock and turn deaf ear to the customer’s plea for the commodity that is near exhaustion in that shop.
The three of us roar with laughter over this. Just then my daughter returns with a packet of maggi and two centerfresh chewing gum. The lady had kept the whole of the ngultrum fifteen we had sent through my little girl. And the readers can calculate the cost of one maggi and two chewing gums keeping that woman’s calculator in mind,lol.