Double Dipping

Illegal in most major cities in America, cabs in Egypt are allowed, and frequently will try, to pick up more than one fare at a time.

I call this double dipping.

What generally happens, is you're sitting in the cab say, on your way to a meeting. To which you are already a few minutes late.

Then, someone screams from the side of the road their desired destination, the cab pulls over, you protest, but the cab driver turns and says "M3lish, m3lish" (which translates roughly to "don't worry, everything will be all right there is nothing in the world that should bother you") and in the person gets.

This one time when I was on my way to a job interview, this rather obnoxious middle aged Egyptian man got in, and when I very angrily said to the cab driver that I better be first to be dropped off because I was late, the man turned around and in English said in a very Egyptian accent "Don't be angry, don't be angry."

Of course, this got me even more angry, made worse when the guy tried making conversation by asking my name and if I was married.

I responded that I didn't want to talk to him (in Arabic) causing the cab driver to giggle, and the other passenger to glare at me and then talk about me in Arabic like I couldn't understand (I could).

So I'm reviewing possible interview questions in my head and preparing my answers to why I would be such an amazing person to hire and trying to calm myself down. We get to where we have to make the turn and the other passenger asks to be let off, and says to the guy in Arabic "Is 3 okay?"

(The fare in question should have been about 20 Egyptian pounds and we were in a metered cab so there was no discrepancy).

Guy gets out. We continue. We arrive. The fare on the meter read 23 LE, and I gave the 20 LE since I didn't have change and didn't feel like arguing over the fairness of the other guy not paying half the amount. Driver gets angry.

Why do I call having a second fare in the cab double dipping?

The last one in is stuck with the person's leftovers - and I don't mean leftover food.