This is an unmanned roadside stall in Borneo, taken with my old Nikon Coolpix E5200 camera.
You can find many of these stalls in rural Borneo, the island where I grew up. Unmanned stalls are attracting attention often for the things that are not there — the seller.
All that can be seen as motorists pass by are items on sale, mostly fruits and vegetables, the price tags and the “honesty” container where buyers deposit the payment for the goods.
This stall here is left unattended and run solely on a system of honesty and trust. I have never heard of any theft in stalls like this.
Apart from the normal proceeds from the day’s taking, there could also be some “collateral profits” involved, so to speak, due to the curious way the business operates.
For instance, if a bunch of banana costs RM0.50 but the buyer only has a RM1 note, he or she will have no choice but to put in RM1 and be contented with having to incur a 50 sen “loss” in the transaction. Or to make up for the loss, the person can pick up other items to make up the RM1 value.
