Nov. 26, 2025
The Most Common Grifts in Istanbul: Part I
During my five-day stay in the former capital of Turkey this October, I was able to witness several acts of swindling and saw a lot of grifters there. Although the tricks they use are pretty old, plenty of tourists still fall into the swindlers' trap.
The most common and probably most well-known is pretty simple: A shoe shiner (allegedally by accident) drops his shoe brush in front of you and pretends to not notice it. When you, as a kind person, point that out to him, he immediately starts shining your footwear (even if you wear sandals) out of ''pure gratefullness'' and tries to distract you with a conversation. After that, he obviously demands a lot of money and becomes pretty agressive, sometimes even following poor tourists to their hotel and threatening them with vengeance. Fortunately, I was always quite leery of strangers and just ignored the shoe brush everytime someone dropped it in front of me. They quickly picked it up then and sought other tourists. The scheme is so common that I once saw three such shoe shiners in mere 40 minutes! It must be quite a monotonous occupation.
A shoe shiner (allegedally by accident) drops his shoe brush in front of you and pretends to not notice it.
When you, as a kind person, point that out to him, he immediately starts shining your footwear (even if you wear sandals) out of ''pure (gratitude / gratefullness)'' and tries to distract you with a conversation.
After that, he obviously demands a lot of money and becomes pretty aggressive, sometimes even following poor tourists to their hotel and threatening them with vengeance.
The scheme is so common that I once saw three such shoe shiners in mere 40 minutes!
That sounds terrible that it happens so much. I visited Baltimore before and they have a problem with people doing it with squeegees and "cleaning" car windshields at junctions and expecting to be paid.
Nov. 28, 2025
Oh yeah, I've heard about it. I think it's a common problem in other huge cities in the US too, isn't it? I appreciate your help!
Although the tricks they use are pretty old, plenty of tourists still fall into the swindlers' traps.
You imply there is more than one type of trap in your piece, but even if there wasn’t more than one, I’d still favor using the plural here because it’s not a single instance of swindling performed in concert by all swindlers.
When you, as a kind person, point that out to him, he immediately starts shining your footwear (even if you wear sandals) out of ''pure gratefullness''itude and tries to distract you with a conversation.
Unless you’re implying these words were spoken directly by the shiner, no quotes are needed. Also, gratitude is the noun.
The scheme is so common that I once saw three such shoe shiners in a mere 40 minutes!
Nov. 26, 2025
@Kindred: The quotes are necessary to indicate that the swindler is only pretending to be grateful.
The Most Common Grifts in Istanbul: Part I
During my five-day stay in the former capital of Turkey this October, I was able to witness several acts of swindling and saw a lot of grifters there.
Although the tricks they use are pretty old, plenty of tourists still fall into the swindlers' trap.s.
The most common and probably most well-known is pretty simple:
A shoe shiner (allegedally by accident) drops his shoe brush in front of you and pretends to not notice it.
When you, as a kind person, point that out to him, he immediately starts shining your footwear (even if you are wearing sandals) out of ''pure gratefullness'' and tries to distract you with a conversation.
After that, he obviously demands a lot of money and becomes pretty agressive, sometimes even following poor tourists to their hotel and threatening them with vengeance.
Fortunately, I was always quite leery of strangers and just ignored the shoe brush every time someone dropped itone in front of me.
They quickly picked it up then and sought other tourists.
The scheme is so common that I once saw three such shoe shiners in a mere 40 minutes!
It must be quite a monotonous occupation.
Feedback
Interesting and well written!
During my five-day stay in the former capital of Turkey this October, I was able to witnessed several acts of swindling and saw a lot of grifters there.
Although the tricks they use are pretty old, plenty of tourists still fall intofor the swindlers' trap.
The most common and probably most well-known is pretty simple:
A shoe shiner (allegedally by accident) drops his shoe brush in front of you and pretends to not notice it.
When you, as a kind person, point thait out to him, he immediately starts shining your footwear (even if you wear sandals) out of ''pure gratefullness'' and tries to distract you with a conversation.
After that, he obviously demands a lot of money and becomes pretty agressive, sometimes even following poor tourists to their hotel and threatening them with vengeaiolence.
Fortunately, I was always quite leerycareful of strangers and just ignored the shoe brush every time someone dropped it in front of me.
Nov. 27, 2025
You have a nice collection of corrections, so I just wanted to add something to the "out of pure gratefulness, out of gratitude" quotations discussion. You could reword the sentence to avoid quotations by using a phrase like "professing their gratitude" or "with a great show of gratitude" etc.
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The Most Common Grifts in Istanbul: Part I This sentence has been marked as perfect! |
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During my five-day stay in the former capital of Turkey this October, I was able to witness several acts of swindling and saw a lot of grifters there. During my five-day stay in the former capital of Turkey this October, I This sentence has been marked as perfect! |
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Although the tricks they use are pretty old, plenty of tourists still fall into the swindlers' trap. Although the tricks they use are pretty old, plenty of tourists still fall Although the tricks they use are pretty old, plenty of tourists still fall into the swindlers' trap Although the tricks they use are pretty old, plenty of tourists still fall into the swindlers' traps. You imply there is more than one type of trap in your piece, but even if there wasn’t more than one, I’d still favor using the plural here because it’s not a single instance of swindling performed in concert by all swindlers. |
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The most common and probably most well-known is pretty simple: The most common and probably most well-known is pretty simple: This sentence has been marked as perfect! |
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A shoe shiner (allegedally by accident) drops his shoe brush in front of you and pretends to not notice it. A shoe shiner This sentence has been marked as perfect! A shoe shiner (alleged |
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When you, as a kind person, point that out to him, he immediately starts shining your footwear (even if you wear sandals) out of ''pure gratefullness'' and tries to distract you with a conversation. When you When you, as a kind person, point that out to him, he immediately starts shining your footwear (even if you are wearing sandals) out of ''pure grateful When you, as a kind person, point that out to him, he immediately starts shining your footwear (even if you wear sandals) out of Unless you’re implying these words were spoken directly by the shiner, no quotes are needed. Also, gratitude is the noun. When you, as a kind person, point that out to him, he immediately starts shining your footwear (even if you wear sandals) out of ''pure (gratitude / grateful |
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They quickly picked it up then and sought other tourists. This sentence has been marked as perfect! |
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After that, he obviously demands a lot of money and becomes pretty agressive, sometimes even following poor tourists to their hotel and threatening them with vengeance. After that, he This sentence has been marked as perfect! After that, he obviously demands a lot of money and becomes pretty aggressive, sometimes even following poor tourists to their hotel and threatening them with vengeance. |
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Fortunately, I was always quite leery of strangers and just ignored the shoe brush everytime someone dropped it in front of me. Fortunately, I was always quite Fortunately, I was always quite leery of strangers and just ignored the shoe brush every time someone dropped |
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The scheme is so common that I once saw three such shoe shiners in mere 40 minutes! The scheme is so common that I once saw three such shoe shiners in a mere 40 minutes! The scheme is so common that I once saw three such shoe shiners in a mere 40 minutes! The scheme is so common that I once saw three such shoe shiners in mere 40 minutes! That sounds terrible that it happens so much. I visited Baltimore before and they have a problem with people doing it with squeegees and "cleaning" car windshields at junctions and expecting to be paid. |
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It must be quite a monotonous occupation. This sentence has been marked as perfect! |
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