Tourism officials in one Arab country have noticed a steady drop in the number of Japanese tourists visiting their country. When they investigated, they found that the Japanese had stopped coming because the money they received from local banks was dirty, worn-out and wrinkled. Thus they decided to cancel their trips and go to countries with clean currency notes. The authorities immediately took action and ordered that new money be printed and that the old notes be withdrawn. Their action was successful and soon the tourists began to return.
Our own Ministry of Finance from time to time issues new notes. Their introduction coincided with Ramadan and Eid Al-Fitr but for some unknown reasons, the SR200 and SR20 bills have not been greeted with much enthusiasm. I wonder if the ministry is aware of this and if it has any knowledge of why these two bills are so unpopular.
I don’t especially like to receive new bank notes but I do hate to get the kind that the Japanese tourists disliked: dirty, full of meaningless words, phone numbers and ink splotches. I have a habit of separating the bills and keeping them in two separate envelopes, one with the clean new ones and the other with the old dirty ones.
If I did not do this, I would be upset, not knowing how to get rid of the dirty bills. Then I discovered that I was not alone in doing this. Many of my friends and colleagues are also sensitive about the dirty notes. One day I discovered the secret behind the clean money my brother always has. To my shock, I found out that he literally washed the money with soap and water and then irons and perfumes them to keep them clean and neat all the time.
My brother does not keep a lot of money in his pocket or he would have to spend the whole day washing, ironing and perfuming. For my part, I will not do as he does because I might do serious damage with the washing machine and the iron.
