Look at this sneaky man standing sheepishly in front of our gallery.
He came to our gallery last Thursday telling one young staff that he
came from china and his "friend" asked him to look for Master Yun to
sell him "jadeite".
Just nice, I was in the gallery. When I heard
this, I laughed, telling him that he may sell us if he has a piece of
raw jadeite that's bigger than ours (850kg). If not, he should in fact
buy from us.
After letting this sheepish PRC go, and I thought
about it for a few days, I gave an order to all Lotusons. Henceforth,
when we see people like this roaming outside our gallery, we shall ask
him to go into one room, lock him up and report to police straight away.
These people come to our beautiful island of Singapore as a
tourist, with a tourist visa. But in actuality, they came to do their
dirty, ugly business of selling his so-to-call "jade" to innocent
Singaporeans who succumb to the temptation of cheap and illegal
ornaments.
In other word, this man is a smuggler.
Not
only he evaded tax when he crossed the immigration customs, earn some
black money on his way back, but because his "shop" is just a piece of
luggage that he pulls with him everywhere he runs away to, he does not
have to bear any responsibility to the things he sells and to the people
he sells to.
He is a thief who steals away money and good fortune from our people.
In other words, the things sold by this kind of irresponsible people
who are just interested in making some hit-and-run money, are fake.
Many years ago, a few of these smugglers have lured away a couple of our staff to conspire with them in a most despicable way.
One old staff brought one client to one "fengshui" shop in Chinatown
who was more than willing to work with these smugglers to buy a piece of
"black jade ring" (which looks like the earth ring of our Heaven and
Earth jadeite ring).
That ring costed only ten Singapore dollars.
Amazing price! But that was not the only price that client had to pay.
Bad fortune followed one after another. After a few weeks, she took out
the ring and observe carefully under strong sunlight. And she then
discovered the hair line cracks in this ring which was not obvious to
naked eyes. When she told that staff, she just shrugged her shoulder
saying that the ring was not sold by her and she should not bear any
responsibility for it.
To preserve the integrity of Lotus on
Water, Master Yun had fired these staffs who were willing to betray the
Lotus and her clients, despite of all the teachings and grace Lotus on
Water has bestowed upon them.
A few weeks ago, one of these
ex-PRC staff has returned to Singapore. He is currently working in this
"fengshui" shop in Chinatown.
Strange thing is, the smugglers who have not appeared in front of our gallery for years started to return again.
I have just decided to be more civic-minded and reported this man to the police, the ICA and the Ministry of Manpower.
And if you, our dear and faithful Lotus on Water clients and fans, have
spotted this man anywhere, or have any evidence of their smuggling
activities, please do inform me.
Let us together help to protect the sanctity of Lotus on Water and the healthy business operation on our beautiful island.