Returning to her seat a minute later, she finds a dark-skinned man sitting in front of the bowl, dipping his spoon into the soup. How shameless, she thinks! But he doesn’t look bad… Let’s not rush him!
If you don’t mind,” she said, pulling the soup to her side. Her interlocutor responds only with a broad smile. She begins to eat. The black man pulls the bowl towards him and leaves it in the middle of the table. In turn, he dips his spoon and eats, but with such a friendly gesture and look that she lets him, disarmed. They take turns eating. She’s taken aback, her indignation replaced by surprise; she even feels a little complicit.
When the soup is finished, the black man stands up, beckons her not to move, and returns with a plentiful portion of fries, which he places in the middle of the table, inviting her to help herself. She accepts and they share the fries. Then he rises to take his leave with a broad nod and utters one of his first words: thank you! She remains pensive for a moment, thinking about leaving. She looks for her handbag, which she has hung on the back of the chair. No more purse! But then, was this black man just a thief?
She’s about to ask for a chase, when her eyes fall on an untouched, cold bowl of soup on a nearby table, in front of the chair where her bag hangs.
The tray was missing a spoon…
Source: anecdote circulating on Facebook in 2012