By Vincent Van Ross

Educated people need not necessarily be street smart! Many street smart people are illiterate. They are not churned out by schools, colleges or management institutes. They make it to their home turf—the mean streets of the world—on their own!

As I stepped out of a temple in the Angkor Wat complex in Cambodia, a six or seven year old street urchin followed me around like my shadow. I had at least three camera bodies hanging out in different directions. I asked him what he wanted.

The boy closed his palm, raised his forefinger and turned his palm around as he pleaded “Sir, one picture sir.” He was not my kind of subject. I tried to explain it to him politely. But, he would not listen. “Please sir…just one picture sir,” he persisted. I fell for his pressure tactics unwittingly as I offered: “All right, just one picture and no more, okay?”

“Okay!” agreed the little boy gleefully. Immediately, he opened his palm and raised to assume a benign pose as if he were some god raising his open palm to bless me!

I focused my camera and clicked.

The boy came running to me. “Show me…show me,” he begged excitedly. I turned the camera around and showed him his picture on the LCD screen at the back of my camera. That was all he needed. He jumped for joy. And, the next moment, he started yelling: “Give me one dollar…give me one dollar…”

“One dollar…for what?” I countered.

“You took my picture…give me one dollar,” he raised his voice.

“Go away,” I tried to ward him off.

But, the boy screamed: “You owe me one dollar…give me one dollar.” I looked around helplessly. And, he kept on repeating his demand, raising his voice each time.

Tourists from several different countries gathered around me eying me suspiciously. I realized I had walked into a trap! Like a fool, I pulled out a one-dollar-bill and handed it to him.

This incident was an enlightening experience. I was educated, he was not. But, in the end, who was street smart—me or him?