> Once I paid a Tehran taxi driver 250,000 rials for the ride, a fare we had previously agreed on after a hard-fought negotiation. Oddly, the money was refused.

> Once I paid a Tehran taxi driver 250,000 rials for the ride, a fare we had previously agreed on after a hard-fought negotiation. Oddly, the money was refused. > “Ghabel nadare,” he said smiling, indicating that he wouldn’t accept it. > Scratching my head, I insisted. Again he protested. Giving up, I thanked him in Farsi and left the vehicle with a grin on my face. “All is well,” I thought, incredulously. > “He was taarofing,” my friend Reza later explained. “Of course he expected you to pay. And you should have insisted more. This is confusing, I say that as a Pakistani whose culture also has Taarof. Here is a TED talk[1] by someone with Persian parent and she states in this talk that a shopper, by insisting to pay for an item, insulted the shopkeeper. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9Trdafp83U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9Trdafp83U