[Pretzels]

Things were very strange in this country, although the people did not seem to notice how unusual their customs and practices might be to those from another country. For example, it was the tradition when traveling upon an aero plane to hand a large bag of pretzels (from which each person would take a small handful) as a way of providing an in flight snack, from person to person, beginning first with the passengers who had paid the highest price for the most comfortable seats (these were placed at the front of the cabin) and then from seat to seat–row to row–gradually moving towards the back of the plane to the passengers who had paid the smallest fare and therefore were deemed to have the least comfortable seats (next to the baskets of ripe pomegranates and boxes of live chickens). By the time the bag made its way to the last passenger, the full bag of perfect pretzels, lightly toasted and covered in rock salt, had become nothing more than an empty bag of pretzel crumbs and lumps of salt. Pity the poor fellow who was the last to receive the bag. It was often said this person was to prone to tearing the empty bag apart and licking the inner lining in hope he might find more sustenance, as if the bag he was holding was a lie. This puzzled me, for would it not be more practical to give each traveler an individual bag, which contained several whole pretzels and only a small amount of the rock salt and pretzel crumbs? This way each might receive a portion of the pretzels, and all would share a small portion of the rock salt and crumbs. A friend in this country thought this idea absurd and preposterous. Say, he argued, you purchased a fare for one of the best seats, would it not be unfair for you to receive crumbs and pieces of rock salt when you could receive only perfect pretzels (lightly toasted and covered in rock salt) since you had paid a higher price after all? Was that fair? he asked. No it was not, he answered. The fellow in the back of the aero plane had paid for a fare that assumed a level of salt and crumbs higher than those in the front, and he must take what is handed to him and accept it.