Faith in human nature restored

I dined last night - hastily and alone - at my favourite hole-in-the-wall Muslim place (I go there almost every week, and sometimes two or three times a week).

The bill seemed rather high, so I queried it. I was disgruntled to discover that the beer has gone up to 4 kuai a bottle (twice what it should be!), but the rest all seemed to be in order..... except that it came out to quite a lot more than I usually pay there for a similar selection of snacks. My brain was too exhausted to grapple with the maths (or the laoban's scrawly handwriting), my Chinese too rudimentary to explain my disquiet. I like the place, so I didn't want to make a scene about it. I shrugged and smiled and proffered the slightly infated amount being asked.

I'd only got a yard or two out of the door before the laoban came running after me. He had indeed goofed on his arithmetic, and had 10 kuai to give back to me.

You don't see that kind of thing very often in China (or anywhere else, for that matter); but that makes it all the more heartwarming when you do encounter it. It's good to be a regular.