The shopkeeper's kick¹⁵

In Hong Kong it was drizzling outside, so I went into a shop. I started looking at a translating machine that had a few cards with different words. If you put the cards into the machine, it will translate the words from English into Spanish, Italian and French. I was curious, so I tried using it. But when I saw that there were only 40 words in each language, and that those words perhaps I already knew, I did not want it. Curiosity always brings punishment.

The worker who was helping me happened to be Chinese. When he realised that I was not going to buy the machine, right in the shin bone he kicked me very nicely. He could have said that it was unintentional, but it was definitely intentional. He did not even apologise. Instead of crying, I laughed. I didn’t feel like leaving just then, so I walked away a few steps and continued browsing.

There were also other customers in the store. One of them was a tall, stout man who seemed to be Scandinavian. His English was not very good. He was also browsing. Suddenly, I saw the Chinese worker do the same trick to that man also. But this time he picked the wrong person! The shopkeeper himself got a smart slap from the tall man.

Then the Chinese man started screaming, “I am calling the police!”

The Scandinavian man followed him to the telephone, saying, “Yes, call the police.”

The worker was not dialing; he was only screaming that he would call the police, and I was enjoying it like anything!

I could have left after I was kicked, but God wanted me to stay there and see this.