To trust or not to trust...?

A very strange incident happened lest evening. I had gone to MG Road to indulge in some retail therapy (unsuccessfully). I was just browsing through my fav. shops. I had parked my car on the main road and had walked quite far away from it. Now, I was tired and bummed at the fact that I found nothing nice, so I thought I'd take a rickshaw back to my car.

Now, I walked towards the stand but the drivers were all talking amongst themselves and didn't notice me. Then from behind, one aunty appeared and she called out to the drivers. She said,"Market side jaana hai." One guy came forward. She then looked at me and said,"Do you want m to drop you somewhere?" I said I was going towards this particular chowk. So she said,"OK..I'll drop you there, no problem."

She seemed like a decent lady, so I got in the rickshaw with her. Okay, now don't think I'm naive or stupid. She seemed from a good family, and well instinct and all that. I'm an Aquarian after al, we are good at stuff like this. So ya, coming back to the story. She started talking by asking me if I was new to Pune (was it that lost expression on my face ? ) So I said,'No." Then she asked if I lived in the society next to the rickshaw stand, she lived there. Again I said,'No." Then more followed - Where do you live? whats your name? etc. I answered all her questions as politely as I could though they seemed quite intrusive and some were even funny. (She asked me if I knew this family who had shifted from her society to the area in which I live. As If !!)

So eventually the place where I was to get down arrived. I started to remove some change to give her but she outrightly refused. She said," Don't be silly. Nahi nahi. It was on my way and all." So I insisted a few more times but when it became apparent that she was not going to take the money, I thanked her and got down.

Now, a few years back, I would have got off and smiled to myself, thinking of how sweet that lady was to drop me. But, living in this big bad world, the first thing I did after I got down was to check if my wallet was still there. Next - Phone intact. Next - jewelery all there. Only after I had finished checking if all my valuables weren't missing, did I reflect back and realize what this world has done to us. I cursed myself for being so cynical, but I could really help myeslf. Why should anyone go out of their way? We all know the kind of people out there, and I have let myself be turned into a cynical paranoid fool. What a shame.

P.S. I myself give people rides when I see someone in need (we all know now poor our public transport system is) Now I wonder if they wud be thinking the same about me.