How can we blindly trust someone who is just a mere stranger to us, when in today’s world, we all are asked not even to trust our own shadows. Now-a-days, people spend enormous amount of money in the name of security. But the saga of faith and belief can still be seen in Mizoram, India, where shop owners along a highway have sustained their living by the integrity and honesty of their customers.
‘Nghah lou dawr’ shop, which means shops without attendants, which are common along the highway in Seling, about 65 kilometers from the state capital Aizawl. One would be amazed to see these shops in the streets without shop keepers. The shop owners leave their shops open for customers to pick up their requirements, while passing through the highway.
One can find vegetables, fruits and flowers in the shops, that shop owners manage to collect from nearby forests. They keep those for sale with the price list and a container for the customers to put their money into.
“We run these shops throughout the year. We just put the price list near the vegetables or anything we are selling and people simply pick up whatever they like and put the money in the container. We trust them, they have never failed us”, says the owner of an ‘Nghah Lou Dawr’ shop.
Possibly this is the only place in the whole planet and one of the rarest traditional barter systems that is still being practice now, where you can shop it yourself at a guard-less roadside store, then drop the purchase items money into a box and walk away with the fresh vegetables.
As vegetables are not available round the year, shop owners sell whatever they collect from the forests and the mountains. The shop owners are happy that their customers never fail them. In this present day world, what best example of honesty and trust one can have other than these unique shops of Mizoram.
Not only renowned for its breathtaking natural beauty, Mizoram in far North-East has beauty in the character of it’s people too.
We wish if such integrity and honesty was there in every human, it would certainly make the world a much happier place.
