My father once said, possibly as an old Yiddish expression, that if you lied to trick a person out of money that was theft, but if you used a "fountain pen" (presumably as part of a contract) to extract the money, that was fair and square. I'm not sure in Israel the average shop owner recognizes that distinction.
Here's an experience that happened on my first week. I went to change $100 and on one side of the street was a licensed Money Changer with a rate posted in the window. On the other side of the street was a grocery store with a sign in English that said something like, "Dollars R Good Hear." So you know which store I picked. The owner greeted me like a long lost relative and when I said I was from California, he went on and on about all his relatives who lived there. I felt so comfortable with this guy. I gave him the $100 bill and he gave me back what he said was 320 shekels. I looked down at the 3 one-hundred shekel notes and the 2 ten argots (1/10 of a shekel) I said, "What are those?" and he said "They're shekels."
Well to make a long story short it took me a day or so to figure out that an argot is not a shekel and when I went back to him he initially didn't recognize me, denied he knew anyone in California and finally acknowledged that the exchange rate was 300.2 shekels. Note: across the street in the "real" money changer's store the rate was 350 shekels. Needless to say, I was shocked and disappointed.
When I saw a policeman on the street I stopped him and recounted the story. He asked, "why didn't you go to the licensed dealer or at least count your money when it was changed." I responded, "I thought, I'm a Jew, the grocery store owner is a Jew, why would one Jew rip off another Jew for 20 shekels?" The policeman couldn't stop laughing. When he asked where I was from, I was afraid to tell him Berkeley, California.
Variations of this experience happen everyday. I went to the Post Office to change money and the receipt I got said 2050 shekels, but the clerk gave me only 2000 shekels. I stood there frozen, she looked at me and I looked at her. Then I said, "the receipt says 2050 shekels" and she said, "SOOO." Then I said, "where is the 50 extra shekels?" and she just kept looking blankly at me. Finally, she blinked, reached into her drawer, handed me the 50 shekel note and without skipping a beat went on to the next customer.
Another time I went to the cafe at the Israel museum with my kids and ordered 3 drinks. When we got the bill, my daughter noticed there were 4 items. I called the waitress over and before I could say anything she grabbed the check from my hands and said, "there's a mistake" and quickly returned with a 3 item bill.
I don't know what to make of all this, since I have so many similar stories. This is not outright theft worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, although at the national level it seems that almost every politician in Israel is being indicted for just such a financial crime. It is such pettiness, usually at the level of a few dollars and there never seems to be any remorse. It is always considered a simple mistake, certainly not the kind of thing that would break up a beautiful friendship between vendor and customer. My initial reaction was that this was a "Jewish" thing, but I am increasingly being told that it is Middle-eastern. I'm not sure, but in any case, I've started to pay much better attention and as expected I am starting to catch many more such "mistakes."
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