Quote from: xhomerx10 on Today at 02:10:07 PM

Speaking of being a millionaire, it's nostalgia time again.

I became a millionaire in Romanian lei a little before 2005 which was a little before the gov't converted the Third leu (ROL) in to the Fourth leu (RON) and a rate of ten thousand to one. It was no great feat - I suppose every Romanian was a millionaire due to government incompetence; arguably the silliest way to become a millionaire.

In 2006, we went to buy a couple of train tickets from the capital to the Black Sea coast. The cashier said, "400" (no currency mentioned but the default was RON by then) and my wife started peeling off 4 X 100 RON notes to hand over. I was trying to get my head around the cost - at the time, we could have probably taken the train from TO to Montreal (in Canada) for about that same amount and since I had checked into it, I new I could rent a little Honda Civic for about 70 RON per day in Romania. The price didn't make sense and as I told my wife, "Hang on a second! This doesn't make sense... I could rent a car for the weekend and it would be cheaper...", she was already forking over the 400 RON. The cashiers eyes suddenly got huge and she appeared to panic, shaking her head from side to side vigorously but she just repeated the same number only louder "Nu! 400!" I had a quick discussion with my wife - "It can't possibly be 400 old lei because that wouldn't fetch a penny but I know she's saying 400 (patru sute)." Finally, the cashier took one of our 100 RON notes and gave us back 60 RON so it was actually 40 RON for the two of us to take the train to the coast. (That's an awesome deal by the way - it was ~US$10 at the time and that's when I got an idea that retiring in Romania might be a good option in the future). It hurt my brain but I finally realized that in a very short time, Romanians had adopted a habit of telling you the cost in thousands of old lei and just dropping the thousand, leaving it up to the payer to go the last decimal place on their own. Everyone, everywhere... not just the cashiers but everyone we spoke with did the same nonsensical conversion. Sometimes, even when I used that method it didn't seem right - case in point, we had purchased a new watch for my dad but had the band sized a bit small. No problem, we took it to a jeweler to have a link put back in... he did it quite quickly and then said, "thirteen lei" - now this guy must be speaking in terms of RON (the new currency) because 13 RON would have been a little under US$3, right? Nope! It was 1.3 RON or about 30 American cents. He demonstrated the actual amount while holding my wife's wallet after assuring us he didn't plan on stealing it. I gave him the 13 RON anyway and thanked him for the lesson after which, he gave us a lifetime guarantee on the watchband size. So I was all set. I had finally figured out the new money and I boldly strode into a little grocery shop on our way to dinner one evening to get myself a Coca-Cola light and some sugar free breath mints... I set it on the counter with a friendly. "Buna seara!" and the young lady behind the counter looked at me and said "cinlei" which was a new word(s) on me - a lazy way of saying "cinci lei" - so it took me a second but then I quickly converted using the New Romanian math... she means 5000 old lei, move the decimal place over to the left and bingo bango bongo - 50 bani! (half a RON). I dug into my pocket, pulled out a 50 bani coin and handed it to the young lady. She held it between her thumb and index finger, tilted her head to the side, put her hand on her hip, furrowed her brow and rolled her eyes at me (typical Romanian way of saying - "come on, man"). Then she twisted the screen toward me, stuck her index finger under the total and said again, "cinlei". You guess it, it was 5 RON. I pulled out 5 RON note and told her to keep the 50 bani and left the shop feeling dumber than when I had arrived. Millionaire life was difficult in Romania.

What a wonderful story Reading it felt like watching a scene play out in front of me. It really shows how strange and sureal currency devaluation can be. on paper, being a millionaire sounds exciting but as you described so well it was more of a fake millionaire situation. The way numbers played tricks on people cashiers shopkeepers everyone adapting in their own way was both funny and fascinating to read.

I am especially love how you mixed humor with a bit of confusion. because it capture the reality of living through that kind of transition. beneath the laugh there is also a powerful truth here, money value is not in the number of zeros on the bills but in what it can actually buy. your story not only gave a glimpse of Romania’s economic quirks back then but also reminded me of a timeless lesson that true wealth is not measured in inflated numbers but in real life value.

Emikoyumi

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