I was driving my sister and her young kid back to their place in a nearby town, when we stopped to eat a packed lunch.
I just parked the car a little way off the road and we were eating, when I notice these two young men....twenty-ish something looking at us from a distance. After some five minutes they and a third guy come over, and tell me that I'm trespassing on their land. I politely tell them that I'm sorry and we're about to leave. The two other chaps though are standing in front of the car, and he says that I'll have to pay a 'rent' for using his land.
His tone was aggressive, but the three of them weren't very big, and I was confident that if it came to blows I could stand my ground long enough to scare them off. So I get out of the car. He backs off, and suddenly starts abusing me, asking me to give him a five hundred rupees. I refuse and tell him to shove off, before things get any worse. At this he directs the two others to pick up some big stone from nearby and tells me that if I don't pay, they'll break the windscreen and windows of my car. My sister and her kid are sitting inside, and all of a sudden I feel more helpless than I've ever done in my life or ever want to again.
I had some 400 bucks on me, I took out my wallet and handed him 200 and tell him that's all I have. He seems satisfied and asks me to get in the car and push off, while the other two were still holding the large stones.
I got in and quickly drove off, trying to ignore the abuses they're yelling behind me.
All the way to her house my sister kept trying to convince that driving away quietly had been the correct choice and how I should not feel upset about it. I don't recall saying anything.
Point is though that now that I've calmed down, I'm having doubts. I feel like a coward who fled instead of standing his ground. I should've just called their bluff and driven the car directly into them. I feel.....angry, at them and at myself. And I would give anything to find them again, and deal with them one by one.
Edit:
JFR I went and lodged a complaint with the police but they said that that was a bad area with a lot of disputed land and the chances of finding those thugs were almost non-existant.
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