- I Paid A Bribe
- 11 years ago
- 2449 views
I was travelling from Mumbai to Heathrow. I had my family with me.…
- Airports
- Excess Baggage
- Paid INR 2,200
I was travelling from Mumbai to Heathrow. I had my family with me. My wife and my 2 kids aged 8 and 1 years. I had a late night flight. When I came to check-in at approximately 11PM, there was only 1 Air India counter open with a queue of around 7-8 people. I got in the queue and waited for my turn. In the mean time my 1 year old was getting impatient and cranky. My turn came after some 10-15 mins. A young man of late 20s/ early 30s was manning the counter. He asked me to put my luggage on the conveyor. He said the baggage is beyond the safe limit as stipulated by the Health and Safety regulations in the UK. I prepared mentally to empty my luggage or to pay penalty for excess luggage. This person on the counter kept quite for few minutes (which seemed to me hours because my 1 year old was already very cranky and I was getting impatient as well). After those minutes of silence I asked this person - "so what am I supposed to do" (still thinking that most likely I have to empty my luggage). And then this person turns to me and says "I can pass your luggage. But, here is an envelope (he passed me a white empty envelope), you can go to the toilet and put whatever money you want to put in". I was shocked and could not believe my ears. In the airport with the full glare of security staff and other passengers this young man is asking me to pay bribe. In the hindsight, one can pass a judgement (to be honest, even for me this incident has not quite gone off my mind even after nearly 4 years and I still feel guilty). He passed my luggage and I took the envelope and went to the toilet. I had Rs.2,200 in my wallet. I put all money in the envelope and passed on the envelope to this gentleman. What scares me most is that this gentleman willingly passed my excess luggage (which is against the regulations). What is the guarantee that he would not pass a bomb or any weapons when given few extra thousand rupees. Scary thought it is!