A shopper in a supermarket opens a punnet of fresh strawberries from the shelf and begins touching, prodding, fondling and handling its contents with his/her bare paws. Nothing wrong, you might say, IF that punnet passes muster, gets chucked into the shopper’s cart and is duly checked out. End of story.

But, what if that same punnet and its already fondled, handled and now (possibly) contaminated contents, fails the examination, gets tossed back onto the shelf and is made available for the next unsuspecting shopper? Still nothing wrong, others may argue, since the berries are supposed to be washed before consumption anyway, right?

If you, like me, however find such conduct inconsiderate and unacceptable, what do you do? Engage your officious gear and proceed promptly to chastise that shopper? Or, mind your own business, since, after all, you’re going to avoid that ‘soiled’ punnet like the plague and do not see yourself becoming an unsuspecting victim of the damage done, if any.

Such was the predicament I found myself in last Saturday night as I stopped by the Cold Storage supermarket at Holland Village. A group of two ladies and a man were standing over an opened punnet and were actively discoursing on the merits and demerits of its luscious and succulent contents while their hands and fingers busied themselves performing physical tests of all sorts to ascertain texture, firmness, turgidity, and what have you. I could almost imagine them proceeding to subject the berries to further olfactory tests and oral manipulations…but alas it did not quite come to that, or maybe I just didn’t stay long enough to see it through.

Whilst the jury deliberated, I debated on the appropriate action to take, but eventually decided not to spoil my otherwise tranquil Saturday evening and let the matter rest.

My other half however did not quite agree and felt I should have done something about it.

Perhaps my lack of civic-consciousness that evening had something to do with a not-so-pleasant experience I had many years ago, when my meddlesome and pontificating rebuke of a stranger nearly got me into a fight. I was in the gents of a shopping mall in town and chanced upon a young father who was helping his 3-year old son ease himself into the wash basin from the vanity top near where I was standing. I was aghast at the sight, and promptly proceeded to admonish the father for using the wash basin instead of one of the available urinals.

The father did not take kindly to my rebuke and challenged me to a fight. I politely declined, knowing I had already made my point. Besides, the defence of civic-consciousness and gracious behaviour would not be served by a fight. However, I walked away feeling deeply chagrined by the episode.

Would you have reacted any differently in these situations?