SidiBouSaid32 This is the world's most expensive wooden spoon.  See story below for details. Index page Previous page At last page

 

I do most of the cooking at home and I have a fairly large collection of wooden cooking utensils. I've learned that olive wood tools are the best because they don't crack or absorb food. But they are also more expensive than other kinds.

Several of the little tourist-trap stalls we visited had different kinds of olive wood objects. I liked the nested wood bowls and spoons at one of the stalls, so I stopped and picked up this spoon. It was a good size and seemed perfect for me. A young man in his 20's approached me and said "You like the spoon? I make you special price!" So I asked how much and he said "Dollars or Euros?" Since I had only Euros I told him that and he said "For you, 55 Euros." He was smiling and very pleasant.

I knew this was about $75 US which was ludicrous so I shook my head and said "No no. Too much." He replied "What you willing to pay?" and I looked him straight in the eyes and said "10 Euros."
He slapped his forehead, looked at the sky, and said "Oh! You are killing me!" So I just looked at him and he looked back at me and said "OK. For you, 35 Euros." I said "12 Euros" and he immediately replied with "25."

I said "15" and he said "20". I said "15" again and he said "17." I said "15" again and he paused a second. I knew I had just bought the $7 spoon for about $22. He said "OK. For you nice American 15 Euros.

Little did I know the drama was just beginning.

I gave him a crisp new 50 Euro note right out of the local ATM machine. He took the 50 and the spoon and went to the back of the stall where he got change from an older man and put the spoon in a small plastic bag. He returned and gave me the spoon and my change.

When I went to put the change in my wallet I noticed there was only a 10 and a 5 Euro note. Since we had agreed on the price of 15 Euros and I gave him a 50 I should have got back a total of 35. But he gave me only 15. So I called out to him and said "Hey, this is not right. I give you 50. You give me back 15 but should be 35." By this time he was on the other side of the stall and talking to someone else.

So I walked up to him showing him he spoon and the 15 Euros he gave to me. I explained again he owed me 20 more Euros. So he called over the other person who seemed to speak no English. They had a very quick conversation in a language I had never heard before and the older man reached into his pocket and pulled out a 20 Euro note and gave it to me. He said something about "not understand" and then walked away.

As we returned to the ship we walked by 2 other couples who were holding things they had bought and counting the change they had received. One man was saying to his wife "Well they screwed us on the change." Apparently I made a better deal than most.