It was when I was about nine years old. One afternoon, I was visiting a shopping mall in town with my mother. After a long shopping, we went to a bakery located at the basement of the building.
I was quite tired by then. Looking at all kinds of tasty-looking bread that my mother was definitely not going to buy for us, my appetite was stimulated so much that I had to use my imagination to taste each one piece of bread in my mind.
After a while, my mother finished choosing the bread, and went to the cashier. I followed her.
My head came just above the counter, and there I saw a basket of cute round bread rolls right in front of my eyes. It was yet another challenge for me to resist the temptation to grab one and eat it.
Then, all of a sudden, my mother reached her hand to the basket and without hesitation, picked one bread roll and threw it in her mouth.
I was shocked, but who was more shocked than me was the cashier. With his eyes wide open, he opened his mouth like fish trying to catch the air, but no sound came out. He then raised his hand to suggest something and finally uttered “Madam, it’s not a sample.”
This time, my mother jumped in surprise. Still chewing the bread roll in her mouth, she raised her hand as if to make a point. “What? It’s not a sample?” Then trying to hide her embarrassment, she argued. “But sir, if you display the bread rolls in a basket like this on the counter, they do look like samples, don’t you think?”
But in the end, my mother felt bad and purchased the entire basket of the bread rolls.
The cute round bread rolls, the man’s astonishment, and my mother’s protest left such an impression on the nine years old that they have never left her memory since.