Should such people be trusted and help anymore?

It was a bumper harvest for pumpkins this year.

The government intervened and bought large sums to ease the situation but many had to be thrown away later due to poor storage.

Another wasteful expenditure by the government again.

Recently a friend of ours sent an SMS asking those who visit outstations to buy as many pumpkins as possible without bargaining from poor farmers.

And it seems a reasonable and timely request.

Help another when in need is not a bad thing.

Last weekend we visited deep down south of Sri Lanka on a pilgrimage and on our way back bought as many pumpings as our car boot could hold.

No bargaining and paid the requested price.

We were thinking that we made both the grower and neighbours happy with that gesture as we distributed all the pumpkins among the neighbourhood later.

Today we went for our groceries to one of the nearby Supermarket and there I found pumpkins similar or larger than the ones we purchased on our way back on display.

Out of curiosity, I picked up the biggest among the lot and asked to weigh it and tell me how much it would cost us.

We were aghast to find that the grower has overcharged us at least 25% more than the current city price.

Last night on Tv news too I have seen paddy growers were going to Private vendors offering lesser prices than the government collecting centres.

And later blaming the government of not paying them a fair price for their products.

Should such people be trusted and help anymore?