No, this isn’t a typo, it actually happened in Bihar. Luckily for the payee, community police intervened and helped them with the fair Samosa price.  On Friday 14th November 2008, two Dutch tourists paid Rs 10,000 (approx US $210, £140, €165) for four Samosas at the world famous cattle fair at Sonepur (BIHAR).

Samosa is an Indian Delicacy of boiled-mashed potato (and sometimes other vegetables like peas, onion, coriander, paneer) stuffed in flour based base and deep fried or baked.

Sonepur SDPO P K Das said the two foreigners had come to India en route from Bhutan. “The hungry couple gobbled up two samosas each at a makeshift stall at the fair, and when one of them took out his wallet to make the payment, the stall owner quoted the price at Rs 10,000,” Das said, adding that the shopkeeper turned greedy apparently after seeing a bundle of currency notes of Rs 1,000 denomination in the foreigner’s wallet.

The couple paid the amount after a heated argument with the shopkeeper. A special police officer SPO, Alokik Kumar, happened to pass by and was shocked when the couple informed him about their problem. The shopkeeper was made to return Rs 9,990 to the couple, Das said, adding that Kumar has lodged a police complaint against the shopkeeper who has since gone into hiding.

However, this is not one isolated case of locals cheating the foreigners. Many small to medium level restaurants keep two types of food menu, one for the locals and one for the foreigner. Some justify that foreigners can pay, while some further went ahead and said if they do not charge more, the guests (foreigners) would think it’s a low-quality food.

Well, the incident did make its mark though – Making Samosa famous outside India, especially in Holland.

Do you think its right to charge foreigners a higher amount than to those of locals?

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