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Threatening someone with a martial art is a bit silly. There's always someone bigger,and you'll probably come off looking like a tit.

Black belt = shodan = first step

Not a huge achievement in itself. Just means you're getting a hang of the basics...

As for the dude taking the money. Maybe learn pickpocketing. Walking off with his wallet would at least give you a feeling of satisfaction...:p

"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori"

I agree it's off topic but......... what a bl**dy great poem, eh?

Remember studying it at school - still makes me well up just thinking about it.

On the original topic, you always run the risk of running into pratts in any environment and usually the best way to handle it is to ignore them (or practice your heckler-handling skills). In this case, I actually do think the trick was perhaps performed the wrong way round - if someone changed my £10 in to a £50 note and then back again, I'd feel a bit p*ssed off. My interest would have gone through the roof when the £50 popped up ("Blimey, he's giving me a £50 note") and then would have disappeared totally when my old £10 came back into play ("Oh, where's that £50 gone? I know he's got it somewhere!").

Reducing the amount (as has been noted before) would be the best way to peak the specs interest ("Where's my bloody tenner gone?") and the working to restore it would ensure the spec stays on the journey with you ("Phew, I'm glad I got my tenner back!")

I think sometimes we get a bit caught up in the methods and forget to think of the effect from a spectator's perspective.