Do not make eye contact while passing a carpet store.
Do not go into any carpet store as you will be ambushed by tea and a lecture on carpets.
Don’t start looking at any carpets because you will start coveting them.
The more you see the more you like and it will be agony to decide on one.
Rule no. 5
Do not carry more than $20 worth of cash or any credit cards while you are walking past a carpet shop. Despite sanctions carpet dealers will take credit cards and route them through their partners in Dubai.
Guess how many rules we broke?
Guess how many carpets we bought?
Not quite enough to open a carpet store. But it’s a start. But what can you do? Isfahan is the world capital of carpets (or is it Istanbul? when in Rome do as the Romans do.
Walking through bazaar and any quarter of town there are carpet stores everywhere. There can’t possibly be enough living rooms in the world to accommodate the amount of carpets stacked to the ceiling in each store.
Seeing that you are told that each carpet takes from 8 months to 3 years to make, there can’t possibly be enough weavers in Iran to prove this, or each one of them lives at least 200 years making about $5 a year.
At the end of your shopping do not succumb to bonus sales of small carpets for your friends at a special price as this is where the merchant will really fleece you.
All, except rule no. 6.
It was exhausting but memorable experience. Let’s celebrate!
