Paradox and Inspiration 166: Whose Bean Sprouts?

Talk about getting started on "big trivia"...

A very odd incident took place at Giant Supermarket, Jurong IMM about two or three years ago. You probably will find this one amusing.

I made my way to the little section where I normally got my bean sprouts. An Indian woman in her traditional wear was already there sieving the bean sprouts with her fingers and putting them into a plastic bag. Nothing wrong with that. But what disturbed me was, she had gathered all the bean sprouts in the corner next to her, so it looked as if only she could use the pile. There was nothing left for me or others to take. Not knowing exactly how to react, I stretched my arms to take some from the pile. As I was about to take the last few grabs of the bean sprouts, the woman suddenly bellowed at me, and started berating me for being rude and not getting her permission for taking the bean sprouts from her pile. Annoyed and amused, I told her that the pile didn't belong to her and asked her where else I could take bean sprouts from other than that one pile. She ignored all that I said and continued to argue what I did was plain rude. Just as I was about to escape from the absurdity with my bag of beans sprouts, the lady's husband appeared. Before she could complain about me, I told the husband what happened and said what his wife did was unreasonable. Her husband didn't utter a word, but just kept nodding with a straight face. Well, I never understood if he was agreeing or disapproving what I said and I didn't really care.