Honesty has become so scarce that it has to be rewarded to encourage. Honesty in Indians tends to decrease when they encounter a foreigner. They charge foreigners almost 5 times than the normal price of any good. Indians are notorious for these trickeries. Among them, there resides a barber in Ahmedabad who charged its normal fee despite knowing the ethnicity. This impressed the Norwegian and he rewarded him with $400 to improve his financial condition.
Norwegian YouTuber Harald Baldr, who is popular for his travel vlogs, is currently touring India. In the now-viral video, Harald walks up to “street-salon” hairdresser and asks him for a quick trim – while taking his permission to film the haircut for his YouTube channel.
“As soon as it’s over, I’m gonna try and grab someone around here that speaks English. I’m very curious to know how this business – how it’s working. How many customers he has per day. And I would like to hear if he has to pay anyone to be on the pavement for the salon,” the YouTuber, seated on a chair, says during his haircut. The Indian hairdresser, too, pulls out his smartphone out of curiosity and records the unique experience. “It’s pretty good actually,” Harald reviews his haircut and the two promptly snap a few selfies together.
“20, right?” Harald asks the hairdresser and hands him a twenty rupee note. Expecting to be charged more, Harald expresses his astonishment. “That was pure honesty. He told me straight up it was 20. He could have asked for a hundred and I wouldn’t have flinched,” he says and pulls out $400 — that converts to Rs 28,000 from his pocket to give it to the hairdresser before adding, “I reckon this is the best candidate found on my travel so far an extra reward.”
He then takes help from an English-speaking local to explain to the hairdresser that the donation he made was for him to buy new equipment and taking care of his family. This is not the first time Herald donated the money in India. Recently, he donated $1000 to a government school in Gujarat and had mid-day meal with the students.
