I was out driving my van and running errands. One of my stops had been at the bank where I picked up my month's salary as I often do. My last stop was at the post office to pick up letters from the States and send mail to churches. When I came out of the post office I could not start my van. Every time I would turn the key, I would only hear a "click" but the engine would not even turn over. Two factors led me to be concerned: my van had a diesel engine and it was the middle of Mongolian winter. It was late afternoon and the temperature would soon plummet into the negatives. I wanted to get my van out of the cold as soon as possible; but, unfortunately, there are no towing companies in Ulan Bator. I called a friend who had a vehicle could tow me, but he was unavailable at the moment and could not help for several hours.
I decided to head home and change into even warmer clothes before heading back to meet my friend and have my vehicle towed. I knew it might be late - and dark! - before we got done with my vehicle. I considered my options. I was at the central post office which is considered the city center. I could hail a taxi, but it often seems hard to get a taxi downtown because there are few good places for the taxis to pull over. I could walk but had not dressed to be out in the cold for the twenty minutes or so it would take me to walk home. Temporarily forgetting that I had a whole month's salary in a leather vest underneath my coat, I decided to cross the street and catch a bus. Four bus stops later, I would be in my area, and a short few minutes of walking would bring me home.
Buses in Mongolia are notorious for pickpockets. I thought I would be all right because I had put the money from the bank in a zippered pocket of a leather vest that I was wearing underneath my coat. The first bus that heads by my district arrived within a few minutes but this particular bus is considered a hot spot for pickpockets. No matter, I thought, I will only be on the bus for a few minutes.
I boarded an already full bus, and my "uh-oh" radar immediately went off. Once one is in Mongolia for a while, you begin to notice events and people that are suspicious. In this case, as soon as I stepped onto the bus, two men detached themselves from the group of people already on the bus and began to crowd about me. Now the bus was already so crowded that people were already pushing against me on all sides. There was hardly room to move. Sometimes when riding such a bus, the driver will suddenly slam on his brakes, and no one will fall down. It is impossible to go anywhere, the bus is so crowded.
However, these two fellows did two things that were suspicious: they pushed their way through the crowd to stand next to me then yelled to some one up in the front of the bus, "Here's a foreigner. Come help us." To my dismay, a big Mongolian man started pushing his way toward me. He was only able to make it about halfway before he stopped, right in front of the doors I was planning to use to leave the bus. I reminded myself that it was only a few stops and turned my back to the two men who were trying to crowd me. But in a bus with so many it's impossible to tell who is touching you. (This probably seems strange to you Americans who are used to your personal space, but in Mongolia such crowded conditions are common. Think of Jesus being touched by the women with the issue of blood for ten years. He must have been in such a crowd because Peter is surprised at Jesus' question.)
The bus had just pulled away from stop no. 3 when I began to push my way through the passengers to reach the door to disembark from the bus. Not only was the big guy waiting there for me, but the two fellows to whom I had put my back also followed me. The big guy purposely adjusted his position before the door so that he stood right in my line to exit the bus. When I asked him in Mongolian if he was getting off at the next stop, he said he was. I could no longer keep my back to the two fellows and so they were now on either side of me. I kept knocking down the hand of the one fellow on my left who was trying to reach underneath my coat.
Finally after what seemed liked many long minutes, the bus pulled up to my stop. People began to flow around the giant who was in front of me, but he stood motionless blocking my way. I realized rather belatedly that he was not planning to move and - to my shame - pushed against an old lady to fight my way around him and get off the bus.
As I stood on the sidewalk, I took a couple of deep breaths and gathered my wits. I wished with all that money I had never got on the bus in the first place. I moved away from the people at the bus stop, unzipped my coat just enough, reached in with my hand, and found a four inch cut in the pocket where my money had been. My heart seemed to stop for a second. And then I unzipped the pocket, felt inside, and realized that the money still seemed to be there.
When I got home, I counted all the money and realized that nothing was missing but that my tormentors had come within a few seconds and certainly within a bus stop of stealing a whole month's salary. Praise the Lord for His protection and mercy.
Later, I was able to return and have the van towed and fixed. Since then, I have rarely taken the bus except when I have almost no money.
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