shoe gazing

As I was shopping for sandals today, meaning being finagled into purchasing something I really didn't intend to buy, someone tried to buy my shoes.

That's right. I took my shoes off to try on some sandals, on the sidewalk in some ancient city, and an innocent observer, Indian, male, twenties, asked how much I wanted for my shoes. I didn't think he was serious but when he persisted that I say a price first I realized this was no tourist trick; this man actually saw my old, old moss green Saucony shoes sitting on the sidewalk and thought "I would look good in those", or maybe "my prospective wife would really respond well to those", or possibly "green shoes!". He certainly didn't consider the size or relatively poor condition of the shoes.

For a brief, all-too-fleeting moment a thought crossed my mind which I believe to have had something to do with giving him the shoes for free, out of generosity or universal indifference or something, but then I came to my senses. Even though he was willing to pay more than I was paying for my new handmade, leather flip-flops, equipped with the individual big-toe hole of which we all thought Dustin and his hippie friends were forerunners of but in reality has been around in India since blessing elephants and sacred cows, I couldn't imagine my hard-earned and well-worn Sauconies on the feet of a short, skinny Indian youth.

Anyways this surprise double bargain impeded on my bargaining abilities for the sandals and I felt unable to run a hard deal and not sell my shoes to the bystanding India. So I paid a little extra to keep my shoes. Maybe not such a bad deal after all.