Confidence Man
A well-dressed individual approached a stranger on the street. “ Do you have enough confidence in humankind to let me hold your watch?’ He asked. When handed
the watch, the man walked away with it.
--The Origin of the Term of “Confidence Man”
It was the day that my roommate came back from home. Just a moment before, using
his friend’s phone, she told me that she would arrive soon and have a piece of
gorgeous news for me. So sitting in the dormitory, I waited, waited, and waited
.
Finally she entered, with a brilliant smile on her face. No sooner had she put down her luggage and slumped herself into the chair than she showed me a newly-
bought-looking mobile phone. “ Where did you get it?” holding it in my hand, I
asked with interest.
“Well, you won’t believe it,” She giggled, “ I bought it at the Railway Station.” “ Really! Tell me about it.” My interest was enticed again. “ Well, Hardly had I got off the train with my friend when the two men came to us and asked us if we wanted a mobile phone. At first, I decided to ignore it. But after they showed me the phone-- it’s Samsung, you know—and it cost only 200 RMB. So I
bought it!”
Sensing my doubtful attitude, she assured me that the phone was indeed real and
indeed functioned alright. Saying this, she in no time switched it on, and used
it to call our dormitory fixed phone so as to eliminate my suspicion.
Oops! It didn’t work. My roommate tried to get it through, but failed. Then I helped try, it didn’t work either. “ Is it likely to be fake?” I asked tentatively. “ Impossible,” she asserted, “ I saw it working. They tried it, and I saw it could work. My friend saw it working, too.”
Well, as it found out later, things went this way: The phone the two men tried in front of my roommate and her friend was indeed a real one. But when she was about to pay for it, without noticing it, the two men maliciously replaced it with
a fake one.
That was 2003. The following one happened just last month. My roommate and I went to the supermarket near our school. Entering in it and passing by its mobile phone section, I overheard a man talking with the clerk, which I think my roommate should hear it, too.
“ Do you have mobile phone charger?” The man asked. “ We do. What’s the problem? Did you lose the original one?” greeted the clerk, while taking the phone
from the man to check. “ Well…” As the man was about to answer, the clerk said, “ I am afraid that your phone is only but a plastic one. Where did you get it?” Murmuring, the man finally admitted that he bought it form the Bus Station
when walking by.
The section we were shopping at was right neighboring to the mobile phone section. So while we wandered about and bought, I overheard the whole talk. Once in a
while out of curiosity I glanced at my roommate, who was fumbling over things she possibly needed.
“Well, did you hear the talk just now?” After stepping out of the supermarket,
I asked. “ Well, what talk? I heard nothing.” My roommate answered calmly. “
Well, I didn’t hear it, either.” Holding each other’s hand, we walked back toward dormitory. But at heart, we all know that it was just another story of “
confidence man”.
Caroline.
