A Kindhearted Merchant

September 4, 2012, 8:30 am

By RACHEL BRAU

Dear Diary:

Our East 12th Street fish-taco shop had been open only three days when a distraught man came into the restaurant late in the afternoon.

“Would you lend me $45?” he asked. “I've been locked out of my apartment next door, and the locksmith will only accept cash. I'll give you my credit card and cellphone as security.”

Being trusting and wanting to be a good neighbor in our new community, I opened the register and handed him $45. “There's no need for security,” I said, “as you are a neighbor.” My staff, all native New Yorkers, were surprised by my generosity and naïveté.

I learned later, from other merchants on the block, that this kind of scheme was commonp lace, and that the credit card and cellphone he offered probably had no value. I knew I had been duped.

You can imagine my surprise when, the first week of June, a man entered the restaurant. “Don't I owe you $40?” he inquired.

My jaw dropped. “No, it's actually $45,” I said. It was the same person whom I had lent money to six months earlier. He handed me the exact amount. “I've been out of town for a while. Sorry it took me so long.”

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