Are the Polish the most suspicious people in Europe?

Suspicion of outsiders, in my experience, is most common among tightly homogeneous communities, scarcely limited to the Poles:-)

An incident which happened to me, oh about fifteen odd years ago, was in a Polish bookstore I happened to be visiting in Greenpoint.

I'd been going to specialty foreign language bookshops for years, for various languages, German, French, Swedish in the New York area, but at this particular book dealer (my first time there), the store owner greeted me, in Polish, and I returned the greeting. The gentleman asked if I was looking for something in particular, at which point I responded that I was simply browsing.

It then occurred to me that, although there were other customers in the store, he began to follow me about, as though checking up on me to make certain I wasn't going to steal something. He then called a co-worker on the store phone, and asked them to please come down to the showroom as there was a customer browsing among the books.

Politely of course, I reiterated in Polish that I was merely looking around. Finally, I did in fact make a purchase of a rather expensive dictionary 'Slownik Polszczyzny' (PFN) and bid the owner farewell.

Even though well-attired that day and clearly able to pay for my purchase, the man remained constantly suspicious of my presence in his shop.

Anything is possible but in that case I wouldn`t attribute the bookshop owner`s behaviour to Polish suspiciousness. You might have simply reminded him of sb he had met in life and had a problem with. I also feel uneasy when I meet people who look and behave like the ones who bothered me in the past. I think it is natural.

Granted, pawian.

However, neither in an exclusively French, German nor Swedish bookseller, first time customer as well, did I ever encounter the
degree of undisguised suspicion which I did in Greenpoint.

Furthermore, in the former three language bookshops, the owner/manager knew immediately that I was neither a native Frenchman,
German nor Swede, yet with never the slightest inkling of wariness which I can recall:-)

I think poles don't trust anyone

Exactly. E.g., I don`t trust you when you say so. :))

Don't trust anything you hear and only half what you see.
Even salt looks like sugar.

Erich Honecker "Trust is fine, but control is better."

Sorry, Łyżko - it was one of Stalin`s fav slogans.

Where d'you think ol' Parteigenosse Honecker got it from, dude?

Of course, from his favourite master, The Sun of The Nations, the Beloved Leader, Great Stalin himself. :)

No doubt. Those East German apparatchiki, Ulbricht, Willi Stopf, Honecker included, were often even more rigid, "linientreu" (hardliners) than
their bosses in Moscow:-) They kissed ass royally just to curry favor, and told 'em it smells like roses!

I believe it has something to do with the class divide in Eastern Europe being much less varied than in the west. Of the polish people I have met there have been only two kinds. Uneducated and university educated. Poor people living pay cheque to pay cheque, and wealthy people with family money. In the uk there is a broader spectrum of class than in Poland and other eastern european countries. The very poor (by western standards) are incredibly suspicious because in they are raised to be "street smart" in lieu of a formal education. They are experts and not being swindled or conned out of money. Unfortunately in the west this is seen as being overly suspicious as that kind of blanket suspicion isn't required and actually acts as a disability. For example someone is using a coke machine, it accidently drops 2 cans. The guy turns to the pole and says "do you want this free can of coke" and the pole says "why?" And questions what kind of a scam the guy is trying to pull. Assumes he must have done something to the can or this is the beginning of some scam. When the guy offering the coke is just trying to be friendly.

I googled this after many experiences. The poles in the flat above me flooded my bathroom so I called a £180 an hour plumber to take a look. Just need the problem sorted. I kept telling them that they would not be charged and that they were covered under their landlords insurance. But they followed the plumber about making his job really hard as there were 4 people In a tiny bathroom. The plumber got angry and almost refused to keep working till I got them to leave the bathroom. I told them that as this was costing me £180 an hour they should leave him to it. They kept denying there was a problem until the plumber showed them water pouring out under the bath. They made the problem a lot worse by being suspicious. They are good friends of mine and I earn decent money so I covered the cost until there landlords Insurance is sorted out. I was just trying to get it sorted quickly.

@ShortHairThug
You mad bro?

That`s possible when you only depend on immigration contacts. To meet a broader spectrum, you would need to visit their native country.


hahahaha I can perfectly imagine this scene.

However, how should they know that your 180-per-hour plumber was honest? Perhaps they already knew that British plumbers can be as shifty as any other plumbers in the world. Your plumber charged 180 per hour - are you sure he wouldn`t like to charge a double price if he ran into a naive client???

There are several cases of swindle plumbers every year
derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/local-news/plumbers-conned-elderly-out-money-3929220