Two girls, no older than eleven, approached me, selling bracelets.

After the customary “hello,” “Where are you from?” was presented, they pointed to a few English sentences handwritten in their notebook, stating they were raising money for kids to get supplies for school.

Although I had no need for bracelets, and anecdotal evidence suggested most tourists agreed, I sympathized with their cause and wanted to help.

So I told the girls that although I wouldn’t buy bracelets from them, I’d certainly buy a snack from them.

They asked if they had a snack now, would I buy?

And I said, well, yes, I would.

Smart girls; time to put my money where my mouth was.

But alas, they had no snacks.

So I told them to go to a place where they thought they could get the cheapest snacks and that I would then buy the snacks from them at a premium.

We walked across the street to a convenience store, and I explained to the employee, who spoke better English than the two young girls, the situation. I asked if she could tell the girls to buy their favorite snacks from the store.

After picking out six or so items and placing them on the counter, the girls then looked at me.

I again explained that they would need to buy the snacks and then sell them to me at a premium.

They thought about it, discussing amongst each other, then paid 10k for their 6 snacks and turned around with the goods still on the cash register counter, and sold them to me for 30k.

Then we went outside and enjoyed the snacks together.

Amazing, I thought; these girls will be able to buy more snacks and make more money!

But alas, it was not so simple.

As we were snacking, another woman in her 50s walked over, selling more bracelets. I struck up a conversation with her, explaining what the two girls and I had just done. She agreed that most people didn’t want bracelets and said, “What about selling snacks?”

To which she responded, “We sell our bracelets around the restaurants, and if we sell food, the restaurants might get mad at us since food is kinda their space, and then they might not let us sell there anymore.”

Yikes.

Also, in the high tourist season (not now), the bracelets do okay. They’re also nice because they don’t perish. She told me that if she sells one or two a day, it’s better than getting another job right now.

Yet she said there are days when she doesn’t make a single sale and although she doesn’t run out of food there are days where she only has a cup of rice and vegetables and wishes she could buy meat.

To me, the bracelet path was not a sustainable source of income in the off season. And the question had now become one of profit sharing. If 20% of the money made from snacks went to the owner of the restaurant, how would they feel about it?

Maybe that could work.