Show me the Money!

There are some vendors in Dhaka whose articles of trade are some of the most peculiar in the world. They earn their living by selling takas in exchange of takas. It sounds fishy, doesn't it? But if you go to Gulistan and Motijheel you will see these vendors sitting on the sidewalks with their basket full of freshly printed bundles of takas that is Bangladeshi bank notes of different amounts. “Sometimes, a torn, damaged 500 taka note can be passed onto you and, in this time of crisis, we can provide you the solution. Show me your money and with a nominal fee I can give you flawless, new currency of the same amount,” says Md Shumon a money seller at Gulistan. “Even people can change large bank notes like of 1000 taka into smaller notes such as 50 taka or 100 taka from us easily instead of going to the banks and standing in the queue,” he adds. In fact, everyday in the early morning, Shuman and other money sellers stand in a long queue in the central Bank for their customers to collect freshly printed Bank notes in exchange of the damaged, mutilated ones. Some of these vendors are also experts in detecting counterfeit bank notes and coins. It is alleged that sometimes they misuse their skill to run counterfeit bank notes to their customers. “For a few black sheep among us, law enforcers sometimes evict all of our stalls and seize our hard earned capital. It is really very unfortunate,” says Shumon. Businesses of these money sellers remain quite dull all the year round; however, thanks to the up coming Eid-ul-Adha celebrations, they are running well.