Never trust an Egyptian when sushi is on the line

But you don't have to take my word for it

It started out innocent enough, sweet even. Mo called me yesterday evening for one of our little chats. At some point in the conversation, Mo was telling me that he was going to take me out for sushi sometime next month, because he knows a great sushi place in St. Pauli with an affordable all-you-can-eat deal.

So, I'm thinking...awesome, right? Free sushi.

A few minutes later, we were done with the sushi topic and for some reason had moved on to the subject of airline baggage allowances -- you know, like how heavy your bag can be when you fly.

I told him that a suitcase can't weigh more than 70lbs (for an international flight). He didn't believe me and said that 70lbs didn't sound like enough. It turned into a bizarre shouting match. Finally, he had to go do something else and I said, "Ok, if I'm right, then I'll take you out for sushi." The agreement was made, he hung up.

I checked a couple of airline websites and, sure enough, the baggage allowances were always around 50lbs for domestic flights and 70lbs for international. So, I texted the info to Mo.

An hour later I get a phone call back and he's telling me,

"So, it looks like I win."

"What?!"

"I win, because you're allowed to take 2 suitcases, each no more than 70lbs -- so a total maximum of 140lbs."

"But I thought we were talking about just one suitcase."

"No, we were talking about how much you're allowed to take with you...so, I win."

Almost immediately he started changing all the terms of the agreement, like the restaurant. All of a sudden his favorite sushi place in St. Pauli wasn't good enough. Then he told me that I couldn't eat any sushi at all and that I was just supposed to sit there and watch him eat.

"Damn, Mo," I said, "you're being so ruthless. I think I'm going to cry..."

And get this...he goes:

"I don't care. The deliciousness of the sushi will cover up any feelings of guilt that I have about making you cry."

We went back and forth for a bit before he said, "You know what? Betting is against my religion anyway, so why don't you just say, 'Mo you are right and I am wrong' and then you can take me out for sushi as a birthday present."

"But your birthday was in January."

"How about Valentine's Day?"

"Um...February."

"What about Ramadan?"

"When is it?"

"Not for a while...hey, I didn't get anything for Pfingsten."

"You don't even celebrate Pfingsten. Also, no one gets presents for that holiday."

"How about you just give me 5 random presents before the year ends?"

"Um, ok...sure."

And that's the story of how I went from getting invited out to sushi to getting swindled into buying Mo five presents.