Loads a money!

We sold the car and the new owners came over to make the final payment. He reached into his briefcase and pulled out a huge wadge of cash...and another...and another...

Okay, he didn't use the brown paper bag...but it makes a better picture!

Many high money transactions are conducted in cash here. In part that's because Party A wouldn't trust a cheque written by Party B, and also because cash can be "black money", undeclared to the tax department and sometimes obtained by dodgy means. Reading the papers here shows many examples of dodgy means - bribes, scams, bribes, facilitation fees*, bribes. We're assuming this money's not dodgy, because each bundle had a piece of paper from a bank around it stating how much was in the bundle. But then, you know what they say can happen when you "assume" things...

So Rod and I had to count it all. 320,000 rupees, not far from five thousand pounds. Being a law abiding Western girl, I've never handled that much cash before. Counting it was quite stressful... But it was correct, we gave the new owner our car registration documents so he could have it transferred to his name before our handover date just before we leave and off he went. Then we had 3 lakh 2, in cash, in our house. That was stressful still! So we called Peggy from the movers and asked her to come so we could pay her for the shipping. And I put the rest in my handbag (as you do!) and we walked around the corner to deposit it in our bank. The teller there gave us a strange look, as if to say we hadn't really grasped the Indian "black money" way... I'm all for not going down that route. Otherwise I'm going to need a bigger handbag...

* Facilitation fee: A sum paid by Party A to Party B, so Party B will award lucrative contract to Party A. For the uninitiated, or to use the Indian, for those who came in late, a bribe.