Don't get me started on lawyers
Cut to 1999 and I'm a junior solicitor working for an international firm in a no-tax jurisdiction middle east office. The senior partner had his practice bought out by my firm 10 years previously which made him a multi millionaire then. He had a side venture which made him a few more millions. He worked (very hard I have to credit him) for 10 years as a senior equity partner for an international law firm making him a few more million (tax free salary, all expenses paid for, etc.). He could spare a few bob.

I was in his office when he took a phone call from the workmen digging a hole for a new pump for his swimming pool. The workmen were all ex-pats from the Indian sub-continent - think of those picture of the Qatari workmen living in squalor getting paid 5$ a day to build a football stadium while dodging death through lack of Health and Safety elves. They wanted a bit more money because they had to get in two more workmen to pickaxe some concrete (bearing in mind this probably 35 degrees in the shade). They wanted another 50 dirhams. On top of the 100 they had agreed to be paid for the 3 of them there already.

Partner point blank refused then complained to me that these workmen just use any excuse to fiddle the rich Western expats and they should have thought about their estimate first and stuck to it. Which is a fair enough excuse if your builder doing a trendy loft extension in Putney wants to charge an extra £10,000 for something unforeseen. It's not really an argument that I would have over £5 for two people for a day's work!
(Gusofnavarone always makes a map of france from sarnies, Wed 9 Mar 2016, 10:35, Reply)