Did the donkey seller know that the Rug Expert was aiming to buy the rug, and not the donkey? Did he think that the carpet was just good luck, or did he know its value and was deliberately tricking people into buying his donkeys?
He said that "this cloth has brought me luck," so it sounds as if he doesn't realize the value of it. It's apparently a family heirloom, but if he keeps putting it on dirty donkeys, won't it get ruined?
He might have already known that the Rug Expert didn't want the donkey. The whole time, the Rug Expert was inspecting the carpet, and he still wanted to buy the donkey even after the seller explained all the bad qualities. Plus, there really isn't any use for the donkey for a tourist, or any foreigner. The translator and the Expert were both pretty obvious about their intentions, by not giving any reasons for wanting the donkey.
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I agree, but I think that the reasons that the seller said it brought good luck was because people were only interested in the rug but instead only got the donkey. Also, because the only people interested in these sort of places are collectors of some sort. These people think they are getting this priceless rug. I also think that the seller didn't know it was priceless and all but thought it was good luck because people in these sorts of countries only belive in religion. They also have no knowledge in priceless objects since they always sell them away and have never looked closely enough to see that these things are priceless.
ReplyDeleteI believe the donkey seller had known the Rug expert and the translater were after the rug all along. The donkey seller stated that he had been seeing many tourists who bought the donkey because they were after the rug. If the rug expert just asked for the rug, he would havve been better off because at least he would get something of value. The donkey seller was playing dumb all along.
ReplyDeleteI think that you pose a good question. the rug seller seemed sharp, because he immediately raised the price of the dying donkey when he discovered that the two men were extremely intent on buying it. However, i think that the decision of whether or not he knew of the rug's true value is quite debateable. if he did, i dont believe he would have sold it because he didnt seem like that kind of *cough-RAJEEV-cough* superficial person. also, even if he had wanted to sell the anyone who was 'in the loop' enough to know of its true value would also be likely to know that the peasants in the area were know for forging valuable artifacts; that knowlege would be likely to cause them to debate the advisability of buying the rug for a high price. There is also the fact that he would only have been able to sell donkeys to very rich, very educated people if he was deliberately using the rug to sell more donkeys. in conclusion, i think that the donkey seller had some idea that the rug was valuable and helped him sell donkeys because of more than just luck, but he didnt know exactly why the rug was valuable.
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