Question. You meet a man at a train station who says he works where you are headed. You have no reason not to believe him. You don't look out of place, you're not clearly a tourist and many other people have been just as helpful so far. Do you a) believe him, and chat away or b) Ignore him and maybe waste an opportunity.
I chose option 'a' - I'll admit now that this wasn't the brightest move but given the circumstances I'd probably do the same thing again. Allow me to explain...
From where the hostel was located I needed to catch a DART train to the downtown area. This was about a 25 minute journey with the station just a 10 minute walk from my accommodation. As I was waiting for my train I was approached by a guy who wanted to know a little about what I was upto. This isn't unusual, I've been approached like this before and all to mutual benefit. I explained that I was headed into Dallas to see the Sixth Floor Museum. "Excellent, that's where I work" came his response. That's got to be good right? He certainly had the information about the place.
On the train now, I began to get his "hard luck story". Apparently he'd been in New Orleans and upon returning had been stabbed. Proceeding, of course, to show me the lovely stab wound. I can think of more pleasant things to see at any time of the day let alone first thing in the morning!
He spoke on and it was quickly becoming apparent that he didn't work at the 6th floor museum at all. Instead he did guided tours of the museum and around the JFK sites. Even that didn't seem quite right. He had began talking about it as if it was an official guided tour. I had the feeling it was anything but that. I was getting an uneasy feeling as we pulled into the final stop where Downtown Dallas awaited.
Here came the crunch. What I should have seen coming from the very beginning. I had been taken for a ride in more ways than one! "So you want a guided tour then?" I really didn't. "No thanks, I'm fine on my own". Which lead naturally to the pay off line "So can you spare me a few dollars?" Bingo. There's the money question. Rightly or wrongly I did give him a couple of bucks. Naturally having done that he wanted more. he wasn't getting any more that was certain! "Right I'm off to the stations". Wait....So not only did he not work at the museum, he wasn't doing any kind of guided tour and was now apparently off to New Orleans. Right. Its OK, I believe you. I mean, what possible reason do I have to doubt him?
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