THE WEEK June12: Matter of trust

Matter of trust

Sometimes it’s best not to test people – you might not like what you find. Sesame Credit recently funded an experiment in which two convenience stores, a Vanguard store in Hangzhou and an AMPM store in Beijing went completely staff free, customers were asked to pay for their goods on an entirely trust based system. Someone should tell Sesame Credit that this sort of thing only ever works in Scandinavia. People responded to the experiment by, well, stealing stuff. A group of women entered the store, filled a couple of bags and walked out which is a little forthright, but you gotta love the gentleman who placed a single 10 kuai note on the counter before helping himself to expensive liquor and cigarettes, we’re not quite sure who he thinks he’s fooling. Sesame Credit say the experiment was a success with the people who stole stuff only “minor examples.” We’re just hoping the people at the BMW dealership start to get similar ideas.

English blues

Students at the Tianjiabing Experimental Middle School in Anhui province are re-sitting the listening part of their English exam after the loudspeaker at their school mis-functioned rendering the English-language recording “Totally unintelligible,” although maybe it was just experimental English? But to those students, don't worry too much if you don't speak great English, more foreigners are learning Chinese! Someone who is probably thinking these students need to toughen up is 86-year-old Nanjing man Wang Xia who has recently sat the Gaokao for the 15th time. Wang has built a career as a pharmacist, but always craved the legitimacy of having a real diploma, fingers crossed it’s 15th time lucky.

Ear ache

A teacher in Sanming, Fujian province has been suspended after sending one of her students home with a staple in his ear. The student, who is only four years old, told his mother that a teacher had stapled his ear during a lunch break. Which is ridiciulous.
You have to staple their lips together to get them to be quiet.

（編輯：王偉）