Easy targets

Have you ever noticed that the main people who seem to get fined for "riding black" on the Prague metro are the hapless foreign tourists? Instead of greeting them with a smile as they enter the station and offering them a helping hand, the DP men in blue set a trap for them well within the payment zone and pounce on them as they're trying to get oriented in the strange environment. In miserable English, these Gogol-like inspectors threaten to haul in the usually honest but always bewildered tourists if they don't cough up. Police officers stand by to help enforce the threat. This is doing wonders for Prague tourism, so to counter the trend the wise aldermen of Mafia Square have decided to give free transit passes to participants of large international conferences. What a great opportunity for the DP men in blue! Many of the congress participants will read in their material that the metro is free ... and then promptly forget their pass in the hotel room. What Prague city hall gives with the right hand, DP will take back with the left.