On 01/05/2012 11:06, Tim Streater wrote:
....
Some 40 years ago I was buying as it might be apples in a greengrocer's
in Naples. Change was 400 lire, and he showed me four 100 lire coins in
his hand. Turns his hand over to drop the coins in my palm, put puts his
thumb over one of the coins. Result: 300 lire in my hand.


Greengrocers everywhere seem to be prone to short changing and other
tricks. In a local market, now closed, one greengrocery stall holder was
known to the locals as weigh thumb.

Colin Bignell