Caught Out Fibbing

Caught Out Fibbing--another fishy story

Like most blokes, I would not have a clue about what I was wearing and when I was wearing it except for only one time in mid-2007. The reason I can state with confidence that I was wearing a green polo shirt with a yellow Gold Coast Game Fishing logo on the left breast side and a Flag of Australia on the right is that I told a fib that involved a similar shirt and got caught out.

You see Chris, Brian and me along with a few others decided to enter a Bill Fishing competition being held at a place called Rompin on the east coast of the Malaysian peninsular and the shirts were printed up especially for the occasion.

Now on the very first night after we had registered our team and had our team photographs taken Chris and Brian retired to the bar. They eventually turned up back at our room but wearing the shirts of a Malaysian fishing team from Penang. Seems that after swapping a few fishing stories they then swapped their shirts. That’s why when Brian caught his fish, and I took the photograph I was the only one on our boat wearing the official team shirt.

After the competition Brian and I went on to Thailand for a few days and Chris departed for Australia. Brian was an old bachelor and as it turned out it was his birthday. It seemed only natural then that when we found a group of artists displaying their wares in a market, I thought that it might be nice to have a painting done of Brian and his fish as a present for him. We selected an artist showed her the photograph and entered discussions about the price which was firmly stated to be 6000 Baht.

Now, this was a bit more than I was expecting and when I asked how she arrived at that price she simply pointed at the photograph and said, “Him 2000 Baht – Fish 2000 Baht – Him 2000 Baht.”

So; what to do? Brian and the fish were essential to the picture, but Chris was expendable and the price was a consideration. I eventually agreed to have the picture painted without Chris and handed over 4000 Baht.

Well, when the 600 x 450 canvas turned up in the post at Brian’s house Chris happened to be there and he was a bit miffed that he wasn’t in the painting. He phoned me and I tried to make light of it by saying that I had him painted out because he didn’t have the official team shirt on. “Well Brian hasn’t got his shirt on either.” he quickly replied and that’s when I confessed that the decision to have him painted out was made purely on economic rationale.

Chris laughed as I explained that a long time ago, I had read somewhere that art and economics have something in common and that is that they both start by deciding to draw a line somewhere.

Author John W Griffiths