Big Money, Big Fools

I strolled through the mud looking at the used cars. Hundreds up them were lined up ready for new owners. But something other than cars caught my eye. I looked again. There, on the ground, was a stack of bills. Could someone have dropped them? This was after all the Gravenbruch Auto Kino where men and women come armed with thousands. For the right deal they were ready to swap them, on the spot, for a used Mercedes or BMW. But why were they on the ground? Why were Deutchmark notes lying as if mere leaves? The wind could grab them and they would be gone. But the bills weren't alone. There were hands near them, and those hands were faster than the wind. They were faster than the eye.

I took a few steps closer. Cardboard boxes, three of them were being moved across a car mat near the money. Under one of them was a tiny wad of crumpled paper. But which one? It seemed so easy to guess. The man moving the boxes was sloppy. I could see the paper under the box on the left just before his hands stopped their back and forth, sideways, up and down motions. He gazed up at a man standing in front of him. Nothing was said but the challenge was on. It was obvious to me; the paper was under the box on the left. I'd watched every move carefully. But there, did you see that? Just as the challenger reached into his wallet to pull out a one thousand mark note, those hands moved the middle box to the left and the left box to the middle. The challenger pointed to the left box, the wrong one, and when the box was turned over, it was empty. I felt sick. One thousand marks cast away in seconds.

How many times could this man be taken? Apparently enough so that soon his wallet, just like the boxes he picked, was empty. I'd laughed in the movie "Restoration" when Merivel had lost all his clothes to a Three Card Monte con artist. But this was real life. This man wasn't going to win it all back on a single bet of a gold coin. I almost felt sorry for him but it is hard to feel sorry for a fool.

I went back to the van. "Janet, you've got to see this." Thomas, a German friend of ours, had warned us to watch out for shysters operating at the Auto Kino. This isn't what I'd expected. This was unbelievable.

Janet went to check out the carnage herself. When she came back, she told me how she had mentally guessed right every time. "Couldn't those people see the trick?" she said. "Did you notice how the con man pocketed the money when the pile got too big?"

As one fool was throwing his 500 mark notes to the wind, he looked to Janet for guidance. She pointed to the right finger of the three she held up. A win.

"You play?" the con man said to Janet.

"No, I have no money."

"I take dollars," he said.

"No I don't have any money."

The con man shoved a hundred note into her hand, "Here."

Janet just handed the money back and looked him in the eye. "What do you take me for a fool?"