Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – An expat living in Ho Chi Minh City has managed to amaze onlookers by bumming a cigarette off a low-salaried Vietnamese worker. The expat, known only as Patrick, not only shamelessly took the worker’s last cigarette but then had the nerve to ask for his lighter as well.
As fate would have it, Patrick happened to stroll into a local watering hole blissfully unaware that his actions were about to unravel an astonishing display of ignorance and cultural arrogance. While blissfully drinking away on his drink, he decided to enlighten the server about a dubious piece of ‘culture.’
The underpaid Vietnamese worker, toiling away for less than a dollar an hour, stood there wide-eyed, silently weighing the pros and cons of handing over his last precious puff of relaxation. Caught in a moral dilemma, the server reluctantly relinquished his last cigarette, hoping against hope that good karma would eventually come his way. “Is this guy for real? Bumming a cigarette is bad enough, but then demanding the last one? It’s like he’s making sport out of someone’s struggle.”
Clearly, Patrick didn’t grasp the irony of his actions, nor did he comprehend the vast discrepancy between the lifestyles of expats like himself and the hardworking Vietnamese locals. While he comfortably spent his money on discounted drinks during happy hour, the server was spending his seventh consecutive day earning mere pennies.
Patrick’s unwitting ignorance and misplaced confidence were not only an affront to Vietnamese culture but a slap in the face to all workers who tirelessly strive for a better life. Perhaps little does he know, karma might just have the last laugh.
As the sun set over Ho Chi Minh City, Patrick contentedly puffed on his ill-gotten cigarette, blissfully unaware of the cultural lesson he had unwittingly given. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese server slaved away, resigned to his fate, and perhaps secretly hoping that one day, someone would deem it fit to enlighten Patrick about the concept of empathy and the importance of equality.
In a serendipitous twist, as Patrick exhaled his triumphant plumes of smoke, a breeze whisked away the lighter he had borrowed from the now forlorn server.