the story about the rock

I was walking on the beachwalk one sunny day in Agadir, enjoying the sun and the water from the Atlantic ocean on my feet. Photographing people, there were not so many today, but some surfers and others walking around just like me. The beach is very very long - about 8-10 km and at one point I decided to turn around and walk towards the city again. Suddenly, a moroccan man with a tooth missing, poor clothes and scars on his underarm approaches me and says that he just returned from a days work up in the mountains. He shows me, what he says, gives him food on the table every day, the beautiful rocks hidden in the Sahara desert. He opens a rock, that he has cut in halfs and inside, is the beatiful crystals..shimmering in the sunlight. He shows me his scars indicating on hard work in finding these rocks. What a beautiful secret...inside the ugly stone! I gave him about 50 DHS (5€) and the stone was in my hands..

I helped this man and buying myself a beautiful souvenir from the mountains and the grottes...then at night: I felt that something was wrong. You hear stories from tourists buying stuff on the beach or on the street, and it is often not authentic.
Sitting in the hotelroom before bedtime, I take the rock into the bathroom and poor water on the purple shimmering crystals. And guess what? The purple color is all over the white sink and I poor so much water until the color is almost gone! The man on the beach had tricked me and the stone was only a hollow white stone. Even though it didn't cost me a lot of money, the feeling of beeing fooled made me skeptical about everything I was going to buy in markets, souks and so on. I guess I learnt my lesson!