Thai Honesty

[bangkokrick]

I went into a bar on Thonglor a couple of weeks ago with my wife and a few friends. We ate drank and made merry for a while then paid the bill and left.

I went to the same bar yesterday for a few beers on my way home. To my surprise the cashier came over apologised and told me that she had given me the wrong bill on my previous visit. I said that it was ok and asked how much i owed her to which she replied that she owed me and promptly handed over 220 baht.

What a breath of fresh air! How many other countries would you find this kind of honesty?

Needless to say i will be going back.

Cheers, Rick.

[Mobi]

It is so dangerous to generalise.

There are good and honest people everywhere.

In my recent car accident, in which I was almost certainly at fault, the Thai man whose car I hit, came with his family to visit me in hospital to see if was O.K and he was very concerned and kind to me. My insurance covered all the damage, but my wife offered him some cash to cover his out of pocket, uninsured expenses, and he asked her if she was sure she could afford it.

The police Captain who came to the accident site and handled the case was also extremely polite and helpful. Although I was supposed to sign the witness statement before the cars were released, it was all done without me, and when I was well enough I went to the station and signed my name. He was very polite to me and no 'under table' payments were made.

It sort of goes against the stereotypical situation in Pattaya whereby any farang involved in an accident is screwed royally by the cops and anyone else who happens to be involved.

[TheDon]

Nice to hear, this may actually tick some people off in here

[Maigo6]

Nice to hear, this may actually tick some people off in here

Come off it Don, you know ThaiVisa, there will be posts suggesting that it was in fact more than 220 Baht and she was still ripping him off.

[bangkokrick]

It is so dangerous to generalise.

There are good and honest people everywhere.

In my recent car accident, in which I was almost certainly at fault, the Thai man whose car I hit, came with his family to visit me in hospital to see if was O.K and he was very concerned and kind to me. My insurance covered all the damage, but my wife offered him some cash to cover his out of pocket, uninsured expenses, and he asked her if she was sure she could afford it.

The police Captain who came to the accident site and handled the case was also extremely polite and helpful. Although I was supposed to sign the witness statement before the cars were released, it was all done without me, and when I was well enough I went to the station and signed my name. He was very polite to me and no 'under table' payments were made.

It sort of goes against the stereotypical situation in Pattaya whereby any farang involved in an accident is screwed royally by the cops and anyone else who happens to be involved.

Hi Mobi I read your post regarding your accident and i think that you were lucky in more ways than one on that day. Good to hear that you are recovering now.

I don't mean to generalise but i was pleasantly surprised on this occasion, so i thought that i would post something good about Thailand because it aint all bad.

Cheers Rick

Cheers, Rick.

[BigSnake]

Thais like most people are for the most part Honest, however if I drop my wallet I wouldn't bet on it being return intact. Last year I made a stop at a local News stand for purchase of a BKK Post, pull out Bt25 for the Post and Bt100 drop to the ground unnoticed by me, two College Students(young ladies) saw what happen and call out to me. shock and surprise, offer to buy them a snack, they refuse, so just a big THANK YOU from me.

Edited March 30, 2008 by BigSnake

[bangkokrick]

Thais like most people are for the most part Honest, however if I drop my wallet I wouldn't bet on it being return intact. Last year I made a stop at a local News stand for purchase of a BKK Post, pull out Bt25 for the Post and Bt100 drop to the ground unnoticed by me, two College Students(young ladies) saw what happen and call out to me. shock and surprise, offer to buy them a snack, they refuse, so just a big THANK YOU from me.

Nice story Bigsnake.

Cheers, Rick

[pampal]

Good to see a good ending

[bangkokrick]

Good to see a good ending

Does anyone else have similar stories?

Cheers, Rick

[MeaMaximaCulpa]

Mobi's post triggered a memory of an accident I had, not at all serious, but worth telling about. I was driving from Naklua to Pattaya, stressed out during the rebuilding of our house, scribbling on yellow Post-It notes while driving (not very smart it turned out). The car in front comes to a stop, and I did not notice in time, and slam into the back of that car. Hmmm

Turns out this is the one lady you want to have an accident with, if you have a choice. She just beams a big smile, and says, "do you like me to help you sort this out?" It turns out she had 14 years of experience in the insurance industry, of those several with my insurance company. The whole thing was done in 20 minutes, she was just very nice and not at all bothered about the incidence. WOW!

I have seen many complaints about Thai people being bad, not smiling anymore, negative to foreigners. To me that is not the real story. I have overall very good experiences here, I think it depends a lot on yourself to behave properly, and you will in kind receive good treatment. And that some locals will react negatively faced with some of the horrible trashy forigners we see around Pattaya is not at all strange...

[stattointhailand]

Good to see a good ending

Does anyone else have similar stories?

Cheers, Rick

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=177559

[bangkokrick]

Good to see a good ending

Does anyone else have similar stories?

Cheers, Rick

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=177559

Great post i enjoyed reading that.

Cheers, Rick

[MeaMaximaCulpa]

There are several threads with positive stories, just do a search.

It is sometimes too easy to focus on the negative, and complain. I do it too, but it does not help at all, unless it is backed up by some positive action. But for most of us, there is not so much we can do in our adopted country, the best approach is probably to be tolerant, forget the negative, and re-enforce the positive.

[bangkokrick]

There are several threads with positive stories, just do a search.

It is sometimes too easy to focus on the negative, and complain. I do it too, but it does not help at all, unless it is backed up by some positive action. But for most of us, there is not so much we can do in our adopted country, the best approach is probably to be tolerant, forget the negative, and re-enforce the positive.

Great advice!

[Ulysses G.]

I have had a lot more experiences with Thais being honest, rather than dishonest, however, I left home when I was very young (so somewhat street smart) and am extremely careful when in areas where people who swindle tourists tend to hang out.

Edited March 30, 2008 by Ulysses G.

[Theyreallrubbish]

Good to see a good ending

Does anyone else have similar stories?

Cheers, Rick

I've forgotten items in bars and restaurant probably a dozen times and EVERY SINGLE TIME a staff member has chased me down the street to give it back to me. This includes leaving a bag of DVDs in a bar in Patpong and being chased through the stalls by a staff member who had obviously spent a few minutes looking for me.

Also, back in about 1995 I left a mobile phone in a mcDonalds while very drunk on my way home. The next morning I woke up in a panic as the phone was missing and at the time mobile phones were expensive and rare and mine was very expensive. I retraced my steps of the previous night more in hope than expectation and when I got to the McDonalds and asked if a mobile phone had been left the girl reached under the counter and handed it to me. I was so happy and gave her 500 Baht which shocked her and she tried to turn it down.

That was a 40 thousand baht phone or about $1600 at the time and it would have been so easy for any member of the day or night crew to have taken the phone in the 12 hours or so it was sitting under the counter, but not one took it.

[Mobi]

I live in Pong village which is about 15kms from central Pattaya. The difference between the locals in Pong and many of those who you may encounter in Pattaya is like chalk to cheese.

We have found nothing but kindness, friendliness and help from the people who live in our area. They always smile when you meet them, and when I take my dog for a walk I am often stopped by Thais - some even in cars - to chat to me about my dog, and how long I have there etc.

I once had a puncture just outside Pong, and A Thai who takes care of my garden turned up on a motor bike, and took my keys, ran me home, and said he would take care of everything. An hour later the car was back home with the puncture repaired and he refused any payment. There have been numerous incidents like this since we have lived here, and when we hear of someone we know with a problem, we also try to help.

My wife recently took over a hair dressing business in Central Pattaya. She has told me that for the first time in life she will not smile at farangs when they look at her. She says nearly every time she tries to give a friendly smile when she is out and about, the farangs try to proposition her, and often they become offensive when she tells them to get lost. Once we were in Big C, and a female stall holder was having a furious row with a drunken farang who was trying to pick her up and wouldn't take no for an answer.

I leave the readers to draw their own conclusions about the behaviour of different nationalities and the dangers of generalising.

[Huey]

Man That’s really good to hear I had similar things happen to me as well;

1) My wife and I left a shopping bag at Sirrocco with, amongst other things, 100,000+ baht worth of jewelry in it. We didn’t notice it until we got home because we had some other bags as well. We called them up and they already had it placed aside for us. Came and got it the next day and all was intact.

2) Anyone see that commercial for the Peppermint rub were the girl leaves her little apartment to through out the trash and she throws her bag in the trash chute instead? That REALLY happened to me. I dropped my Man Bag in the trash in a hurry leaving the condo. I realized it was gone like 15 min later and we turned right around. One of the cleaning ladies had already emptied the trash can and brought the bag up to the security office, completely intact! Besides all my cards and ID’s I had like 28-30,000 or so Baht in there. I gave her 1000 baht for her honesty and she was over the moon. Bless her, I know she makes nothing. That’s character.

3) Before I got Married I sat down with someone we all Know, (I’m not gonna name names) for a business meeting. The meeting never panned out as we could not come to a agreement about price. But before the meeting we had a lil chat about weddings and Sin Sot. I told him about how much I was going to pay (A LARGE amount by most standards) and that I had already arranged with the father that I would get that money back at the end of the wedding. This man Laughed in my face and said point blank “Forget it, you lost, you will never see that money back!” Not only did I get it back (bricks still wrapped in the bank plastic strips) but the father gave me a huge beautiful gold Buddha necklace weighing 6 baht! And the Mother gave me my wedding band, white gold with .5 carat of diamonds.

Most Thais are really good people, all in all I LOVE THAILAND, and enjoy the culture and people. Everywhere has it’s bad points, all you can do is what you can, and live were the good outweighs the bad, for me its definitely here.

[vegas]

1. I was in an ATM line in Sydney behind 2 Thai girls (I could tell by their chit chat) and they walked away after making a transaction. When I stepped up to the machine $700 slid out. I said 'oi do you want your money' to the girls? They turned around and thanked me profusely.

2. I found a HP PDA in a taxi in soi 33 and called the owner and gave it back.

I think Aussies are just as honest as Thais

[jstumbo]

I have had nothing but positive experiences in Thailand. I have friends that own large factories that employ hundreds and others that work selling clothes at Jatajak Market. I eat at fancy western restaurants and cheap sidewalk establishments and never had a problem. Went to India a couple of months ago and I only paid for things 5 times during my stay. Three of the five times the person tried to short me on my change. "India! Don't forget to Flush" should be their slogan.

[sgunn65]

I was at the resort I am taking over, to do some last minute checks. Some Americans had left that morning. The housekeeper went into one of the rooms and found 320 dollars (about 1 month wages for her) and promptly handed it in. I will definitely be keeping her on!!!

A young girl chased after me (I wish ) the other day but it was only to give me the 20 bahts I had dropped! Small thing but worth relaying.

Now if only they didn't turn into the hounds of hel_l when they get behind a wheel!!!

[popshirt]

I can't tell you the number of times Thais have returned items to me I have forgotten, or told me I had given them too much payment, in the years I have lived here. Many many times.

Also I would like to say a good word for the Bangkok taxi drivers; I have always been treated courteously and never had to deal with some kind of rip off. Never once have I had to ask them to turn on the meter either.

[twschw]

Last Tuesday I went to the little shop to buy a snack and found that i had left my money in my apartment. I was turning to leave and the owner called me back. She told me to take the snack and come back later to pay, which I did. I had only been to that shop once before. What a nice experience.

[Foggy Dew]

I went into a bar on Thonglor a couple of weeks ago.

Hi Rick,

No harm to mention the name of the bar, this type of service deserves to be rewarded with extra business if one was in the area.

Regards

Foggy

[mark lamai]

How many other countries would you find this kind of honesty?

possibly hundreds,

whats so special.

[twschw]

It is special because if you read this forum you mainly read complaints and this is kind of nice.

[TheDon]

How many other countries would you find this kind of honesty?

possibly hundreds,

whats so special.

Also the same with most of the negative topics, its nice for a change to have a positive topic

[balo]

I think Thais are more honest than Europeans , even if they're not rich.

I feel more safe in Thailand than back home .

If I leave something behind over here 8 out of 10 times it will be lost forever....

It is special because if you read this forum you mainly read complaints and this is kind of nice.

[PadThaiGuy]

It is special because if you read this forum you mainly read complaints and this is kind of nice.

Had a transaction with an honest cashier in Thailand. Definitly worth posting about.

[bangkokrick]

It is special because if you read this forum you mainly read complaints and this is kind of nice.

Had a transaction with an honest cashier in Thailand. Definitly worth posting about.

Well i was very happy so i thought that i would post about it. Not a lot of money but it's the thought that counts.

Good to hear some positive replies from members with similar thoughts.

Cheers, Rick