Greg's friend, Danielle, said that something like 1/2 of the young people of Italy are unemployed. In Sicily, there are many immigrants. At the grocery store, some young man will stand in the parking lot and load your groceries in hopes of a small tip.
Another example is at the gas station. The rental place recommended a gas station to fill up before we returned the rental car. They have both self serve and assisted pumps typically, but this one had no assistant because it was mid-day. Most businesses are closed between 1-4 for a long lunch and then are open until 8 or 9 in the evening.
Italian gas pumps will not take our credit cards. The machine took only euro. Greg put in 50 euro. A young man acted as if he was the gas station attendant, but he was not dressed well, so I wondered if he was "self employed." When the tank was full, Greg looked for his change. There was no change. The young man said the station was closed, no change was possible.
This seemed odd to us. I poked all the buttons on the machine and got a receipt. At that point the young man said we could bring the receipt tomorrow for our change. I was ready to let it go as a 25 euro lesson. But Greg persisted. Another driver stopped for gas and Greg asked him. The driver said the young man would give us the change and he would get reimbursed by the station.
So the young man gave us the money and we were off. Had we not retrieved our receipt, he would have received the change when the station opened again. It would have been a good day's salary for him, I think, even if we were the only tourists who came by that day!
Had the young man not been there, the station would have made an extra 25 euro.
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