Does Money get things done in Thailand?

Was visiting a friend who had an apartment at Wat Dhammakaya and had parked my car in the crowded car park. I had touched the wing mirror of a badly parked truck but when I checked there was no damage to either vehicle. Not a solitary mark.

Spent an hour or so chatting with Robert and then returned to the car park to find a group surrounding my car and claiming I had damaged the truck. The “damage” was on the furthest side of the vehicle. They had obviously seen me checking earlier to see if I had caused any damage to his vehicle and saw an opportunity to make a claim.

I pointed out that there was no damage to my vehicle and that his alleged damage was not in a place where my car could have even touched his. They were having none of that logic. I called my insurance company and the agent arrived in about twenty minutes. Responses are fast in Thailand. He saw my point of view but did not seem too keen to argue my case. I had pointed out to him that there was rust on the other guy’s truck. Clearly it was old damage.

I saw him examine the rust closely. I also saw him discreetly put the 200 baht he was offered in his pocket.

I got in my car and drove off.

This kind of opportunism is not unique to Thailand of course.