Nearly be deceived at a change booth in Indonesia

I went to Bali in Indonesia.

I had to exchange my money of Yen (Y) into Indonesia Rupee (IR). So I visited at a change booth in Jakarta International Airport. There were several booths opened and almost all of them were inviting me suggesting advantageous exchange rate.

Jakarta International Airport was modern and clean.

I chose one of them, because the worker at the booth showed the rate 1 Y at 115 IR. It was advantageous. Usually 1 Y is equaled to 110 IR. I decided to exchange 30,000 Y into IR.

30,000 * 115 = 3,450,000
Is it OK? I was so confused as number of zero was too many.

Then, the worker presented me a lot of bills that consisted of a total of 3,045,000 IR. I had nearly accepted the deal but noticed that I was cheated. I claimed that the worker had made a mistake. He showed no apology but gave me 450,000 IR, instead of 45,000 IR, at last.

If I had not notice the trick, I would have lost 405,000 IR. This is about ten percent of total money. I guess this worker ordinarily makes some trick to exploit some money from naïve travelers. Unless, the change rate he suggested makes no profit. I was surprised that such a trick was performed in a change booth placed in an airport. We are never deceived in an official place in Japan. That is, Japan is excessively safe country. Be cautious.