The art of a good con

I should preface this entry with the comment that it was actually written a few weeks ago on the train from lisbon to faro -- that would put it back on the 26th of october.
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I'm somewhat ashamed (or I suppose maybe embarrassed is more the word) to admit that I allowed myself to be conned the other day. Yes, I realize that's an odd way of putting it -- allowing oneself to be conned rather than just saying I was conned, but then again I think that's kind of the way a good con really works -- all the while its taking place, one has the feel, a certain apprehension, that something is amiss, and yet for whatever reason, be it sloth, pride, greed (or any of the other seven deadly sins) one can't help but go along for the ride... In my case I'd say pride and sloth were the culprits. I was taking a break to sit down in a square near the water side just at the base of the main avenue in lisbon when a girl came along and asked something in portugese. I just kind of shook my head and said in spanish, "lo siento, no puedo hablar portugese".
"English? Do you speak english?"
"Yes," I answered apprehensively.
"I'm sorry, do you know what time it is?" she asked.
I took out my cell phone and said "I think it's 2:15 if my phone is still on spanish time"
Then she went into her sob story -- more or less -- I mean it wasn't that abrupt that she started asking for help, first she asked if I knew how far the airport was. Allegedly that damn air france had lost her luggage -- never take them. Did I have a guide book, or know where one could exchange money? I said I only had a few pages, but there seemed to be a number of places to exchange money up the main avenue -- I'd seen them that morning as I walked to my hostel (first mistake).
"Oh, which hostel are you staying in?"
"Uh, the hostel. I don't know if it has a name. Just up the street quite a ways"
"The one by picaus? That's where I'm staying"
"Yeah, that one."
"Ah, I thought you looked familiar"
It's funny how suggestible our minds are. I did remember seeing a girl as I checked in, and the girl did look more or less like her, so of course at the mere suggestion that she had seen me my brain just filled in the blank and let itself believe that was her. All plausible, but at the same time I was aware there was a distinct possibility she was playing me for a fool -- after all, everything she said had been more or less ambiguous and all the blanks had been filled in after I had hesitantly offered up enough information...
"You see, I've been to the western union office, I had some money wired there, but I don't have my card" uh, or the story went something like that because I wasn't really paying that much attention. Honestly I was more interested in eating my roll and cheese -- it was good! Mmm, multigrain and crisp... "I tried to exchange my Rens, but they won't take them, I have these coins...."
"Oh, you wont have much luck then, banks don't like to exhange coins no matter where you go. Not sure they'll take south african currency anywhere here though".
"I hate to be a bother, but do you think there's anyway you could help me out? I could give you my rens and then I'll find you in the hostel and I can give you back the euros for the rens."
This is of course where my pride came in... So hard to watch a damsel in distress (and no, she wasn't all that attractive so this wasn't motivated out of lust!) I figured ten euros would probably get her whereever she needed to go so I looked in my wallet -- damn, all I had was two twenties and a five. I really didn't want to give her twenty, but I decided to be a good sumaritan and trust her. "Here, take twenty. I'll be around the hostel tonight. If you want to, you'll find me and give it back." She started to offer me the rens, but I said, "no, don't worry, I trust you. They're no good to me."
She of course thanked me profusely and then said she was staying in room 424, what room was I in... I hadn't checked in yet, so I didn't have one. She asked for my name so she could write it down. I was again apprehensive of giving out that kind of information, but I wrote it down on her map.
Then she was off. I finished my roll and started to snack on some sunflower seeds and raisins. Within a minute or two she was back.
"I'm sorry, but maybe you can help me out here -- how much is 37 dollars? My seminar is 37 dollars but I have to pay in euros."
"One euro is 1.30 dollars so that's about 30 euros."
She started doing the math on her paper, 10 euros would be 13 dollars, 20 euros would be 26 dollars, 30 euros would be 39 dollars, so 37 dollars would be about 29 dollars. "I'm terribly sorry to keep bothering you, I know you're trying to eat, but do you think I could borrow a few more euros?"
Now I was annoyed. It was pretty obvious at this point that she'd conned me and now she was just milking me for all I was worth.
"I thought you have everything in your bag? Aren't you going to the airport before your seminar?"
"Yes, but I have to check in first, and the check in time is soon, so if ... Bla bla bla bla..."
"I'm sorry, I would, but if I give you another twenty, then I won't have any money myself and I'd really rather not walk around with nothing on me." (this was a complete and total lie -- I had more money in my money belt and of course there was that other 5 I'd mentioned...)
"Oh, if you'd like, I can meet you at rossio, say a little after 4? Do you think you can make it that long?"
Now this may sound ludicrous, but to tell you the truth, that last little bit annoys me the most. It's one thing to con me out of some money, but to suggest that we meet at some random place at some allotted time, knowing very well that I would of course show up and she wouldn't, and I would therefore spend a couple hours waiting around and wasting my time looking for her, now that's just plain inconsiderate! I said no way. But the fool that I am, knowing very well I would most likely never see that money again, I gave her the extra twenty -- pride got the better of me and I didn't want to be an @$$hole... I said no, I didn't want to meet her at rossio. If she was for real I knew she'd find me and get the money back to me. Then she walked off and appologized again for interruptinig my snack.
You know what I did next? I suppose I should have followed her, or even offered to go along with her, or asked for some identification or something. I didn't do any of that. As soon as she walked away, I got the hell out of there -- for two reasons -- first I didn't want her coming back and asking for more, but second, even if she was legitimate and was going to give me my money back, anybody in the square who might have been looking our way had just seen me hand out money twice to the same girl. Talk about a mark! So I packed up my snack and quickly walked away.
There was no room 424 in my hostel.
I'm reminded of the time when I went for a hair cut and asked for her to take an inch and a half off. She said, oh, do you want me to use the number 8 guard? No, I want it to be an inch and a half. Right now it's about three, please don't take it down shorter than an inch and a half of it'll stick up.
No, trust me, it'll look good.
No, I know my hair, it'll stick up. Please no clippers.
I should have walked out of the place at that point, but instead let her use the clipper figuring if she insisted that much she had no idea how to cut with scissors. Sometimes I just need to walk away when I know bad things are about to happen...