The wiener dog con job

That's me taking a photo of the con man's wiener dog. Photo by Nick Fletcher.

You meet every kind of con artist there is on the old streets of Havana. I don’t mean con artist in a criminal sense, although certainly there are plenty of those as well, but in an inventive sense. As in, Yes, what I am trying to sell you is completely ludicrous but you know it and I know it, so why not? As a Cuban told me when I asked about an iPod that had been left on a bus that we both knew was still there, despite the fact that he adamantly swore that it was not there, “In the United States, you just go out and buy another one. Here in Cuba, this is not possible. So, no, there is no possibility we will find your iPod on the bus.”

But I’m not even really talking about this sort of thing when I say there are a lot of con artists on the street. I’m talking about guys like this local we came across in Habana Vieja who was riding around ostensibly selling miniature Cuban flags from a basket on the back of his bike. Also in the basket was a dachshund. The man stopped us and asked if we’d like to buy one of his flags. “Very cheap,” he said. “Just five pesos.” Which was enough of a bargain to get us to actually stop and have a look. But here’s where the con comes in.

The guy wasn’t really interested in selling us miniature Cuban flags. What he wanted us to do was get interested in the wiener dog that was riding in the basket on the back of the bike. A wiener dog who was wearing a child’s denim hat, John Lennon glasses, a pink wristwatch on one paw, and a Superman cape. Oh, and the dog was sucking on a pacifier. Now, you see something like that, you’re going to stop, right? Which is what the guy is counting on. Then you’re going to grab your camera and start taking pictures of the dolled-up wiener dog. And the dog’s owner is happy to oblige you. He’ll take off the dog’s denim cap, if you like, and replace it with a straw hat. He’ll have the dog sit up on his hind legs and wave to you with his paws. He’ll even have the dog stick the pacifier in its mouth and pretend to be asleep.

Then, when you’re done taking your photos, he’ll smile, put out his hand, and ask everyone who took a photo for five pesos. Which, in our case, meant that in about a minute, the guy on the bike with the dog made twenty bucks. Which is a typical month’s salary in Cuba. Even though none of us bought a Cuban flag.

Of course, we could have just blown the guy off and walked away. But why do that? This was a very good entrepreneur and it seemed only right that we should reward him for his moxie and industriousness. Even if he was a con man.