MEANWHILE ON THE PLANE FOR HELSINKI:
A Chinese traveller says, 'Mr Santa Claus must have been hard to bargain with. Luckily we had our Dragon to negotiate for us.'
His next-seat neighbour wonders 'You think so?'
The first traveller continues, 'Yes, otherwise we would have had to pay the full price for our trip. But I think Dragon stood our ground, so we had nothing to worry about.'
His neighbour continues too 'Well in that case I think he must have appealed to Santa's appreciation for little bright-eyed kids. You know Christmas is a family celebration and if for instance I and my kids weren't with my dear wife now, it wouldn't be a celebration but a separation!'
A third voice is heard, 'But I hear there was a misunderstanding during the price negotiation.'
The second speaker illuminates the situation 'Yes, that's true. Santa wrote a percentage on a piece of paper, to be more precise, 35 %. Then Dragon said to Santa, 'So the original price for him, his wife and his kids is 3000 €, according to this percentage they'll have to pay a bit above 1000 €. So I think we've got a deal.'
But then Santa looked askance at Dragon and said, 'How did you count this? The right answer is a bit under 2000 € !'
The third one asks, 'Why did Santa say something like that?!'
The second speaker explains in more detail, 'Well, there is a difference in how percentages on the products are understood. In China the percentage given for a product means that this much you have to pay from the original price whereas in Finland they take off the percentage from the original price and you pay the rest.'
The third concludes, 'So the bigger the percentage in Finland, the cheaper the final price whereas the bigger the percentage in China, the more you have to pay from the original price.'
'Yes, you are right.' is the second one's response.
And onboard the plane, the chat goes on like this between the Chinese travellers about how much this trip costs until they start dozing off one by one, one while sitting, one while standing and leaning against his neighbour passengers' backrest and another while lying on two seats. They fall asleep as easily as if they were candles that have just been put out. No noise seems to bother them at all!
What was the final price for the family is not revealed here but an observant reader can draw this conclusion; it must have been more than 35% in the Chinese terms and less than 65% in the Finnish terms. More than 1,050 € but less than 1,950 €. 1,500 € might be anybody's guess?
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Weigh Out Way-In
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