This is the story of how I came to hand over the equivalent of about US $10 to a man I didn't know so that he could buy a sheep (it's Easter in the Orthodox Christian church) before the market closed, last Friday. Even as I'm writing this post, I'm thinking how could I have been taken in, but I was double teamed and this is how it went down.
I wanted to go on a bus tour of Addis Ababa so I headed down to Meskel Square which is one of the designated stops on the route. Now my Amharic is non-existent so I had just said Meskel Square to the conductor of the mini-bus and one of my fellow passengers told me where to get off, which coincidentally happened to be his stop too. He fell into step with me while producing an official looking tour guide pass that had his name, AAM, and photo on it. My default mode is RED ALERT, but I think a combination of sunshine and the friendliness of the people I've encountered since I arrived in Addis 2 weeks ago had lowered my alert threshold to a green shade of amber.
Having dined on injerra in the preceding days, I had a distinct craving for rice so I decided to dine at a Chinese restaurant just across from Meskel Square. My smooth talking companion had name checked Diani Beach Hotel and Mombasa during the course of our conversation as I had brought up my Kenyan connection and when I told him of the trouble I had had finding a telecenter the previous week, he offered to show me one after my lunch - he said he had a meeting nearby. After sating my rice craving, I walked out of the restaurant and proceeded to look for A. Failing to spot him, I proceeded to walk up the street as I had decided I wanted to see the Lion of Judah.
Within 10m of the restaurant, a guy called out to me and I turned to look at him with a "do-I-know-you" expression on my face. He then proceeded to tell me that he had seen me here and cleverly name dropped the place I was staying. Now, I thought I knew all the staff at the lodge, but I reasoned that he could be one of their maintenance guys and having been bowled over by the customer service of the staff I had encountered, I was prepared to give this guy the time of day. What's more he's English was impeccable and he was well dressed.
The Chinese restaurant is across the road from the stadium and as I plan on attending the 16th edition of CAA championships which run from 30 April to 4 May, I wanted to find out about getting tickets so I told "the closer" that I wanted to make enquiries at the box office. We crossed the road, but "the closer" told me the box office was probably closed as Friday was a holiday.
He then proceeded to ask me for a "favour". He said that he had been trying to get in touch with his wife who was in church (it was their Good Friday), but her mobile phone was switched off. He told me that he had found a sheep for Easter, but he had a shortfall of 100 ETB and wanted to buy the sheep before the market closed so he asked me if I could cover the shortfall. It all sounded plausible to me and with the memory of how solicitous the staff at the lodge were, I agreed. My sixth sense wasn't too happy because I only had 200 odd ETB on me and Addis Ababa isn't Mastercard friendly, but it was overruled and I handed over 100 ETB. He had enquired as to what time I would be back at the lodge and I told him that I didn't know as I had planned to spend the afternoon exploring so I suggested he leave the money at reception.
Needless to say, when I got back to the lodge later on that day, no money had been left and when I enquired as to whether there was a staff member with the "name" "the closer" had given me, you can guess the rest.
*The Art of Deception by Kevin Mitnick
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