Should You Share Eatables with Fellow Rail Passengers?

I seriously don’t get this.

Recently when I was waiting in Chennai Central Railway Station I saw a short movie being telecast on a big screen TV. They showed how someone befriends a co-passenger and convinces them to drink a cool drink which was mixed with sleeping pills or something else to make them faint. The person drinks it and finds all their valuables missing the next day morning.

The video was made so dramatically that I was smiling almost throughout!  But the message was simple: Don’t accept/eat any eatables given by strangers/co-passengers on the train.

I thought why take pains to make such an elaborate video for it — isn’t it obvious?

I was wrong. It seemed, this wasn’t so obvious.

After I boarded the train, I found two families — one sitting next to me and another sitting opposite to me. There was one small kid in each family. Soon the kids started playing with each other and the families started talking to each other.

The lady on my left took a packet of biscuit (of all things!) and offered one to the kid in the opposite family. The kid had enough sense not to take it and looked at her mother. This mother says, “Oh I have also brought things to eat — No thanks . . .”  The lady insists once more that they take. The mother immediately jumps, and takes not one but two biscuits. She gives one to the kid, tells her to eat just one, and eats the other one herself!

I was already wondering what’s going on? Haven’t these people heard stories of ‘biscuit bandits’ in trains who appear like normal families?

This lady then turned towards me and tried to offer me a biscuit. I gave her a razor sharp glance. She immediately withdrew the packet!