A Voyage in the East

Today I had a lesson in how honest most Chinese people are, and how stupid we barbarians (the literal Chinese translation for foreigner) are. I desperately needed to buy a bottle of water. I went into a small shop next to my hotel and requested a bottle of water. The lady said the numbers, but I, being an ignorant fool who hasn't learned much Mandarin, didn't understand. She had a telephone and entered the number 1 and 5. I thought she was wanting to charge me 15 yuan, about $2. I said, no way, and began the bargaining process and offered her 4 yuan, which is a little steep, but a reasonable price. She got upset and pulled out money. She communicated that she wanted 1.5 yuan, about 25 cents. Talk about honest, if I were her, I would have said, "okay you dumb barbarian, I will take 4 yuan for your stupid bottle of water." But she didn't.