'My mother is not colour blind': Woman complains 'dishonest' hawker cursed at and did not return change to mum

Is this a case of a dishonest hawker or just a misunderstanding?

In a Facebook post shared on Sept 2, Diana Soh said that her 76-year-old mother paid for a $5 meal with a $10 note at a 'cai fan' stall at Bedok Interchange Hawker Centre on Aug 25 at 1.30pm. 

But the stall tried to bully the "helpless" elderly woman by refusing to return the change, Soh complained. 

She described in her post that the hawker yelled at her mother and even asked her to swear that she had given her a $10 note.

"If my mom swear then they will return my mom the change," Soh added. 

"They just kept insisting that my mom gave them a five dollar note. My mother is not colour blind, and she can definitely differentiate a red ten dollar note from a green five dollar note!"

In the comments, several netizens commented that the hawker's behaviour was indeed uncalled for.

"Why need to curse someone over $5? We will not know [the whole story] unless there is CCTV," a netizen said, while others shared their experiences with rude hawkers. 

A netizen also felt that the hawker stall deserved to share their side of the story before being subjected to unfair criticism online. 

'I did not mean to curse her' 

The hawker assistant, who was involved in the heated dispute, however refuted accusations that she had refused to return the change to the elderly diner.

In an interview with Shin Min Daily News on Sept 2, the 45-year-old, surnamed Zhang, shared that the diner had given her $5 for a plate of one meat and fish.

But the elderly woman kept insisting that she had given a $10 note, Zhang claimed.

"I even told her that she had given me the exact amount. But after arguing back and forth for five minutes, I started to get angry," the frustrated hawker assistant added.

In a desperate attempt to prove her innocence, Zhang admitted to raising her voice at the elderly woman.

She said: "I told her, 'If I had taken $10 from you, I'll be ploughed to death by a car'.

"I didn't mean to curse the woman. [But] I might have spoken too fast since I was angry and anxious back then."

Speaking to the Chinese daily, the stall owner, surnamed Cai, shared that he often reminds his employees to return the customers' change before putting the money into the drawer.

"My employee did not make a mistake since the money that she had received from the elderly woman was always in her hand," he said, while clarifying that his employee did not mean to scold the diner. 

In past disputes at hawker centres, a 51-year-old hawker was seen hitting a 17-year-old customer with a ladle in April after the latter had allegedly flipped a food tray at him. 

The teenager was subsequently taken to hospital after the fight along Sengkang West Avenue. 

And in May, a woman was taken to hospital after squabbling with a drinks stall owner in Chinatown.

The cause of the dispute was over a $2 change that was returned to the customer in coins, Shin Min Daily News reported. 

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chingshijie@asiaone.com