Small change Thai style -- I bent over to pick up one baht and I didn't like it

[user76753436]

16 hours ago, lovelomsak said:

I am probably very alone on this way of looking at it but wish to say it.

  I pick up all money I see on the ground regardless of value. I feel not to pick it up shows diarespect for the money.

  People work hard for money it makes the world go around.  It should not be walked on like dirt.

  The amount is irrelevant.  

Plus the fact, someone laboured in a factory ( mint ) to manufacture that coin. SoI think...yes, go ahead and pick it up, even if it is only a satang coin. same same like spilling a few drops of gas when fill up the car. I hate doing that.

[tifino]

picking it up, would be a civic duty! 

- it might save someone from being arrested!

 

 

  for stepping on it  (a 50-50 chance it was Heads Not Tails)

[Grusa]

When I come home each evening, I empty all the coins from my pocket into a jar. If I know I will need small change I will take somefrom the jar in the morning, otherwise it accumulates.

When the jar is full, my (farang) wife and I sort it and bag it in ziplock bags of 100 baht each. We usually have about 2000 baht, over a couple of months. We take our bag of change to Tesco, in the morning before it gets busy, and offer the change to the small traders in front of the check-outs. Swensons, Mr Donut, S&P, and such are always happy and buy 500 - 1000 worth, smaller coffee outlets will buy a hundred or so. Most count it, some don't bother!

 

Banks here charge for handling change, so traders hate to have to get it from a bank!

 

So yes, to answer the OP, we pick up small coins!

[sead]

It's bad luck to throw away money or accidentally drop it and not pick it up. And so I have some rubels, Finnish,  etc that I will never use but can't change coins. But I would never throw them.

Did you or they work for this money? 

[Shiver]

I'd pick up 1 baht if there weren't 'too' many people watching (I'm shy), especially since I know the driver wouldn't take too kindly to being offered 9 baht (cheap charlie if you do or do not).  I mentioned to my S/O some years ago about how much money I'd found walking (since it's classless form of transport and you can earn instead of spend) into the city (a 500, 10, and several 1's).

 

Later in the conversation I asked what she really wanted in life.  She held her hand out (as they do) and said "1 million baht".  So I asked her how many baht in 1 million baht, and she did not know the answer.  There's your problem love, right there.  Can't define yer goals.

 

Years pass, and I've got a woman (same one) that hates to spend, but loves to shop (result, house full of 'carp').  I don't know what the opposite of a gold digger is, but yeah that.  She still has all her gold, her car, her bike, money (she only spends mine) house will be next (I say 'her' house as I want something altogether different, though she's welcome to stay ???? ).

 

If I say "hey, I made xyz on a deal in 7 mins, how d'you like DEM apples?", and she's entirely unimpressed.  Food, Aircon, dogs and a notion of 'security' and she's chirping all day long.

I still can't find a contractor to install the silo with a world domination rocket in the middle of an island, so plans are on hold.  I explained my plans, but she was busy dribbling at a picture of som tam on facebook and said 'urgh urgh' (PaiBoon, I want my money back, it doesn't understand my wife..."but then again...who does? (BladeRunner)..

I'll post the best pic out of 1000 to show my friends in England that I'm living the life... or I'll go get a bar stool and be a grumpy old man.

The point of this post?  Like you, I guess there isn't really one, but I'm holiday/retired out and need a project.

 

I do enjoy my job (I say Job because it's makes me sound important and needed, but I retired a while back I think, not sure there was a date exactly, just moved onto different interests), but more like a hobby, that pays, and not in this country though I don't leave here for more than a day a year usually.  I plant 'systems' (ohhh!) elsewhere that do 'stuff', which converts to bread on'th table.  Maybe I could be a social do good'er and be the pied piper (if I had a pipe, and if I could play, and if knew of some rats...but apart from that...), there are enough rats, which I could run into a klong, except I'm pretty sure they can swim.  I'll start with pied and see what happens.  Beer by the pool starts at 2pm, but by then I might be talking rubbish, oh, err...

[neeray]

17 hours ago, lovelomsak said:

I am probably very alone on this way of looking at it but wish to say it.

  I pick up all money I see on the ground regardless of value. I feel not to pick it up shows diarespect for the money.

  People work hard for money it makes the world go around.  It should not be walked on like dirt.

  The amount is irrelevant.  

Above ..... My thoughts exactly !

My X wife has said that I must walk looking at the ground because I see an inordinate amount of coin lying there just smiling up at me. Pretty much a daily occurrence. And yes, I pick it all up.

That has ranged from pennies to 5, 10, 50 and once even a hundred dollar note. And once a $500 chit on the floor in a casino. Turned it into security, nobody claimed it so it became my bonus.

But for this coin-picker-upper, I got another bonus when two monetary changes took place in my home country of Canada. The penny was discontinued, 5 cents became our lowest coin. The amount of dropped coins didn't seem to change, but the value per pick-up did.

And the one dollar bill was replaced by the "loony" coin. The two dollar bill by the "toonie".

Now, it is not infrequent to find loonies and toonies on the ground (smiling up at me).

 

I've worked hard all my life for money, why would I leave free money laying on the ground?

Call me shameless, I don't care.

[Jingthing]

Hahahahahaha So funny. Made my day.
 
Actually the GF told me once the baht bus drivers hate to receive the smaller denomination coins so I try to make sure at least I have 2 fives and preferably a 10. Although it's all money at the end of the day I guess I do see their point. They are always in a hurry to get people off quickly so as not to disrupt traffic too much and scratching around for those pesky little bahts does take extra time. Also I mostly give my small money to the people begging in the street or place in one of the charity boxes if I come across one so I don't usually have many anyway.
 
Den 

That's another matter. Yeah they prefer 10 baht coins for sure. I never pay them ten ones unless they've been taped which I rarely have. But I do two fives, or one five plus ones/twos regularly and only had one driver go postal related to that and he was an obvious nut job anyway based on his driving.

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[Jingthing]

The last time i went to immigration there was one western white guy (i think maybe american but not sure) he was wearing pale colored knee length cargo shorts. So far no problem.
 
The only problem was that this poor guy chose material that shows water marks..
 
..you know where this is going..
 
He was literally stood in front of about 100 or more people with his hands on both hips, looking around like a mere cat..
 
..with wet patches all around his arse crack. Soaked!
 
I saw more than one person gigging.
 
To the OP, are you sure you know exactly what the locals were laughing at?

Nope. Dry.

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[Nurseynutcase]

I saw a Television programme in the UK some time ago about a pensioner who used to 'work' the taxi ranks in the town where he lived.  He swept the gutter and picked up all the change that was there.  One year he 'made' over £4000 in dropped coins and notes.

Then some a**holes beat him up for his nights 'takings' and the police asked him to stop.

He didn't stop as he felt it was too profitable.

Food for thought?

[Jingthing]

picking it up, would be a civic duty! 
- it might save someone from being arrested!
 
 
  for stepping on it  (a 50-50 chance it was Heads Not Tails)

Better not to go there on this topic.

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[1FinickyOne]

In CM it is 30 baht and I had ready a 20 baht note and 2 five baht coins.. I dropped a coin and while I was looking around for where it might have rolled to... the songthaew driver smiled and said - - never mind... 

 

As to the ladies smiling at your straining... I used to say to my wife in USA that if I really wanted to get a laugh from her I could just slam my fingers in a car door... 

[Jingthing]

It's bad luck to throw away money or accidentally drop it and not pick it up. And so I have some rubels, Finnish,  etc that I will never use but can't change coins. But I would never throw them.
Did you or they work for this money? 

I get that. I won't throw even satangs or us pennies in trash. But like I said I do leave satangs on counters or toss them into my never never jar. It's almost a superstitious thing not to literally trash them like doing that would be super bad money luck. Not very rational at all considering the waste in most people's lives representing large amounts of money.

One of my regular stores noticed that I always leave the satangs and they've started to just round down my total.

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[NoshowJones]

Quite an entertaining topic JT.

[tifino]

... and reading about the varied coin-incidents 

[Jingthing]

What's really missing here is a Freudian psychiatrist to give commentary about the trauma of potty training. 

[SheungWan]

Some guys spend their whole lives sweating the small stuff.

[Jingthing]

4 minutes ago, SheungWan said:

Some guys spend their whole lives sweating the small stuff.

Sweating? Who said anything about sweating? Geez. Like I said I've already confirmed my crotch and butt area were dry.

However, thanks to the hot tip here I did examine the crotch area of the shorts I was wearing and can see a small area where the threads are coming apart. Not enough to show anything interesting but heck, maybe it doesn't take much for bored Thai massage workers to laugh. 

[tifino]

luckily this is only online thread picking ????

[Jingthing]

1 minute ago, tifino said:

luckily this is only online thread picking ????

Who knows, a few more cheeky one baht bends and those shorts may really split open! 

[tifino]

1 minute ago, Jingthing said:

Who knows, a few more cheeky one baht bends and those shorts may really split open! 

 

and no more banal retention...

[Jingthing]

Just now, tifino said:

 

and no more banal retention...

You aim too high. The flesh is weak. 

[elgenon]

If I have collected 5 1bahts I give it to the baht bus driver who doesn't like it and gives it as change as soon as possible. If I only have 5 I would pick up 1 so I get rid of all 5, If I have 6, and drop 1, I leave it.

 

You should do what you feel is best and forget others.

 

A Thai friend of mine also calls then tuk tuks. Confused me when she said lets take a tuk tuk.

[Jingthing]

10 minutes ago, elgenon said:

If I have collected 5 1bahts I give it to the baht bus driver who doesn't like it and gives it as change as soon as possible. If I only have 5 I would pick up 1 so I get rid of all 5, If I have 6, and drop 1, I leave it.

 

You should do what you feel is best and forget others.

 

A Thai friend of mine also calls then tuk tuks. Confused me when she said lets take a tuk tuk.

Well, they're obviously not tuk tuks.

The drivers all know what the Russians mean so they play along.

If I had five baht for every time I've heard a Russian ask is this a tuk tuk pointing at a baht bus, well, I would have a lot of five bahts.

It's pretty absurd to watch. Kind of like someone entering a large shopping mall and asking if it was a 7-11. 

[Mukdahanman]

The one baht coin was making a bid for freedom - you were right to re-capture it as a lesson to the others

[StreetCowboy]

2 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Well, they're obviously not tuk tuks.

The drivers all know what the Russians mean so they play along.

If I had five baht for every time I've heard a Russian ask is this a tuk tuk pointing at a baht bus, well, I would have a lot of five bahts.

It's pretty absurd to watch. Kind of like someone entering a large shopping mall and asking if it was a 7-11. 

If you had five baht for every time you wouldn’t need to bother with picking up one bahts.

 

I prefer to crouch, rather than bending, for fear of being rear-ended.

[Saladin]

I picked up a coin from the street and my girlfriend made me put it back - said it was unlucky. I would get instant small gain but a much larger loss later. Who can fight Thai logic and superstition?

[Jingthing]

14 minutes ago, Saladin said:

I picked up a coin from the street and my girlfriend made me put it back - said it was unlucky. I would get instant small gain but a much larger loss later. Who can fight Thai logic and superstition?

Now that is very interesting to me. As mentioned in the OP, I suggested that picking up found money on the street was a different class of thing than picking up your own money that you have dropped. Can you ask her if she regards picking up coins that she actually dropped as the same thing as picking up found coins? 

[Oztruckie]

If I drop any coins here in Los I tend to leave them, I look at it this way, it's not worth the trouble when one is prone to lower back muscle spasms, on another note, during my car transport days when delivering new cars into bond yards I was always picking up bolts and nuts that had dislodged from new vehicles, had quite a collection after so many years lol. 

[Jingthing]

I'm at an age where some people can't easily bend anymore so I think it's wise to keep bending as long as I can. Also with hair. I've still got it all and not even receeding so it seems a waste to cut it short.

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[Andrew Dwyer]

I picked up a coin from the street and my girlfriend made me put it back - said it was unlucky. I would get instant small gain but a much larger loss later. Who can fight Thai logic and superstition?

My gf would pick up 1 baht if she saw it on the ground with one exception .

On a local bike ride as we were riding along at the side of the road I noticed a 1 baht coin, then another, then another...... I counted 9 in all over a 1 km stretch. Then we got closer to a temple and i heard the funeral music so I realised what had happened.

When we stopped she said she had counted 8 x 1 baht coins but wouldn’t stop as she knew they were from the funeral “ convoy “ and it was bad luck to pick them up if you didn’t know the deceased !!

Wonder if those local kids fighting over the coins at funerals knew the deceased [emoji848]