@maf, was that candy bar Polish?
a genuine question....what's going on in that scenario?
Well, I don't know this guy and don't know what was going on in his head, so I can only guess. He wasn't a car mechanic, so why would he take money for that? I guess he did them a favour... Maybe he was simply a nice guy. He didn't want any money, but your friend gave him something anyway, which was a nice gesture and so he appreciated it.
Also, I'm guessing foreigners/Westerners (and your friend was an American at that!) were probably still pretty rare/"exotic" for Poles in those times, so people might have been more likely to get out of their way to help them out, I think.
And if you want to look at it from the PRL perspective of some "shrewd" person, I guess - maybe he hoped that one day they'll return the favour and help him out with something too. But since he took that candy bar - such scenario seems unlikely to me.
Btw, believe it or not, there are Poles who feel nostalgic about PRL times, because, as they claim, "people were nicer back then, they were helping each other", etc.
So Paulina is being quite generous with her percentages.
I did add 1% option :))
Sometimes referred to as "Servants of Venus" (Służebnice Wenery).
Or "panie lekkich obyczajów" ;) That's how my mother called one woman who was a prostitute and got arrested and forced by the authorities to work in the factory where my mother worked during communist times (prostitution was illegal in PRL). My mother said that this woman was wearing "cat-eye" eye make-up to work (I guess that must have been pretty unusual among the female factory workers, or my mother wouldn't bring that up lol) :)