Some years ago I attended a talk by the Danish author Leif Davidsen. Before becoming an author he had worked as a journalist, and in this capacity he had spent some years as a foreign correspondent in Moscow. This was in the time of the Soviet Union and before anyone imagined that the communist regimes would collapse some day soon. He told some stories from that era. Here is one of them - as I recollect it:
During the Soviet era there was always a shortage of some goods in the shops. It was not always the same things that it would be difficult to get. Some days it could be toilet paper. Some weeks later tooth paste, shoes, coffee pots or whatever.
One time it was electric light bulbs that were impossible to come by. This had been the situation for quite some time and people were getting desperate to get hold of light bulbs.
One day Mr. Davidsen was wandering round Moscow. On his walk he passed a small square and saw people gathering around a man. The man had three cardboard-boxed filled with electric light bulbs! And he was selling them. Mr. Davidsen asked for ten light bulbs. They were quite expensive, but when there is a shortage that's normal. Nothing to do about that.
He paid, and just as he was about to leave he asked if he could be sure that the light bulbs worked.
"No Sir", the man said, "they do not work. They are old light bulbs that have been replaced".
Mr. Davidsen was perplexed. "Then, why do people want to buy them?", he wanted to know.
"Oh!", the man answered, "there's a great demand. Everybody wants to buy. You see, they take them to their work place, take out a working light bulb and put in the one they have bought from me. If they just took out a working light bulb without replacing it, the manager would discover it, and they would all be checked before being allowed to leave the work place. Now the manager just thinks, that the light bulb has stopped working."
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Isn't it amazing how people are able to outsmart the system when they need to?
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