Never hire a communist

Our next door neighbors are communists. In France the communist party is still fairly strong at the local level, although now losing steam. Our last local mayor was communist and there are still a number of village mayors in the towns around us who are communist.

I asked our neighbor's grandson about watering some plants while we were gone. Nothing big, just a few potted plants and a planter box. It would take about 10 minutes once a week. The neighbors said I didn't need to pay him, that it was just a part of being neighbors. I insisted and gave him the first half before we left.

When we returned, I waited several weeks for him to come by to get the rest of his money. Finally his grandmother called and asked where his money was. I told her I had it, but had not seen him. She arranged for him to come over and pick it up. We talked and I gave him his money. Seems he was a bit bent out of shape that I had not paid him in time.

Now we just found out that he didn't feel that what we paid him was sufficient and his grandmother, the communist, thought he should get more as well. She said he had been upset that we hadn't paid him enough and he wanted 10 euros more.

And all this after saying that he would do it for free since we were neighbors !