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no money, no money, free gift ...
lobster
Crusty Veteran
Lovely Qwan Yin 'amulet' that my sister gave to me ...
It had been given as a 'gift' from a fake monk in London, who told her the offering of £10 was not enough and wanted £20.
As it is Kwan Yin, I am very happy as it is priceless and will go on my shrine ...BUT it is a scam.
http://opcoa.st/Pw0pT-cf547
As a wrathful plain clothes dharma wrathful monk kicker I will be on the lookout for these pseuds. Maybe I should dress up as a Yinyana monk and give out dana to unsuspecting tourists as a counter measure ... ? What is the kind course of action?
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Comments
Hand out portions of Neapolitan ice-cream as a lesson in impermanence.
Yep. Paid $5 for something similar in Sydney a few years ago.
So what? No skin off my nose. Just someone trying to make a buck. I get paid a lot of money to move pieces of data from one place to another. Is that a scam?
I once went into a 2nd-hand, charity-cum-junk, bric-a-brac shop, in the UK. In the window were three opalescent glass toadstools, very like this, but in various stages of being opened...
I asked how much they were and she replied £8.00 each... Now, bear in mind, this kind of shop in the UK sells everything dirt cheap...and I knew they were available, ordinary High Street retail, for less.
"Ah, but they came from a very mystical home, the lady was very spiritual..." She explained.
I basically told her to not talk rubbish. They were shiny glass toadstools, and their provenance had nothing to do with anything. There was nothing to either justify or prove that where they came from made them any more special...
To her credit, she had the good grace to look embarrassed....
Heh. Someone trying to make a buck. Way back in prehistory, some caveman was handed a shiny rock by a slick stranger, along with a story about how this rock was special and came from a sacred cave blessed by the cave bear, and if he carries this rock with him, he will have good hunting. And all it cost was half of that deer the caveman was butchering at the time. And if he threw in the antlers, there was a second rock for when the first one was out of luck.
The cavemen bought one rock for half a deer but decided to keep the antlers. And the shiny rock really did bring good luck, until the luck ran out that winter. His wife kept telling him that he should have bought that second rock.
Practice "Dana"...With a 'benefit of the doubt' heart....
If one can afford to give, then give, and if one can't, then just wish them well on their money making venture....
These monks are all over the place, even here in Aotearoa
@lobster Sometimes, the experience is worth far more than the item in question. Perhaps it gave your sister such joy to find an item she knew you would like, that the cost was worth it to experience finding it, and gifting it to you. It will go on your shrine. Knowing that is probably more valuable to her than the money.
I once spent around $80 to win a stuffed spiderman at a fair. My kids and I played the game together, and despite knowing the toy was worth about $7, we played until we won. It was totally a scam, like all fair games are. But 10 years later, it is still something we laugh about. We have pictures of the day, and we talk about how silly it was and how crappy the spiderman was (it got a tear a day or 2 later) and how hard we had to work to win it versus just going to a store and buying a much better quality one for far less money. But it is a memory that my kids treasure. It was worth the $80.
Your sister bought you a gift that you like enough to put in a shrine. Lucky guy.
End of story.
For the professional conman everyone else is a potential mark. The fake monk was only acting according to his dharma.
Yes, exactly. Law of survival. Why do they do this? Because it works.
Been going on for melenia:
Give me money and I will give you a charm.
Give me more money and I will bless your new charm.
Wear it and it will protect you from (name your weapon)
Ta Ta and come back for more if it is too weak. (If you can)
are you sure he wasn't saying " mo money, mo money.. then gift free"?