A Man and His 200 Vietnam Dong

This morning, a 40 year-old man approached me asking if I could find the currency conversion of Vietnam currency to Philippine Peso in the internet. I said yes so I had to google it. It was then that I've learned that Vietnam Dong is what you call Vietnam's currency. All I know before is just VND, I did not even bother to know :D

Anyway, Mr. Neighbor's money is VND200. As of today, 200 VND = 0.448435 PHP (http://www.xe.com/ucc/) which is approximately 50¢. So I told the man that his money is only equivalent to 50 centavos. He was still wondering and confused so I tried to explain that P1 = 445.995 VND. The confusion got worse because what he understood was "VND200 = P400".

I felt pity on him. I could see the hope in his eyes that his Vietnam money could get a sum of Philippine bill. The excitement he had the time he approached me has been changed into frustration as I told him that he can get 50¢ only for his VND 200. 

As he walked out the door, his shoulders drooped like carrying a burden. Maybe his expectation is too high because he got a foreign money. Reality just sucks sometimes. The best thing he could do with it now is to keep it in his pocket to serve as a memento.