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The young woman from Brunei was really enraged. She was getting angrier by the minute. The argument, apparently, had gone on for sometime.

"What? You don't want my money? This is Brunei money, you know?" The lady from Bandar Seri Begawan thundered, as she once again proffered the brand new $500 Brunei note in frustration. Her indignation, clearly, knew no bounds.

But the man at the newsstand in Singapore was quite unmoved. "Sorry, lah," he said, refusing, once again the Brunei note point blank and selling her the magazines.

I was just passing by. Because the woman was from Brunei, I stopped and watched with interest. But there was little she could do in the end.

"I am going to sue you! I will report you to the government!" threatened the rebuffed woman, as she marched off to a moneychanger round the corner.

No luck again. "No small change in Singapore dollars for Brunei money," the man behind the counter curtly told her.

By this time, our Brunei lady was clearly quite hurt and flabbergasted. She just stood there, not quite knowing what .to do. She obviously needed help.

That was when I spoke to her.

"These people are idiots," she blurted. "I thought our money was legal tender in Singapore."

"No," I corrected her. "Our money is not legal tender in Singapore. It is only customary tender. It is the same in Brunei. The Singapore dollar is customary tender in our country.

"That means that the two governments came to an agreement sometime ago to circulate their currencies at same value, that is to say at par, in their territories for sake of convenience," I told her. And as I happened to have some change, I helped her.

"You may go to the hank. It is a good thing to get it changed if you happen to have denominations of more than ten," I told her.

"There are still places in Singapore where they do not want even small Brunei notes."

Coins are another thing. Singapore coins are freely accepted in Brunei but rejected outright in Singapore.

Not to say in Singapore for that matter. Bruneians have frequently been shortchanged elsewhere. And so far we have been taking it lying down.

Often, Bruneians get less for their money at the exchange in Bangkok, Hong Kong or even in Kuala Lumpur compared to the Singapore currency, which has the same value.

If you go to a moneychanger, they may not even want it. I do not know why that is so. But it seems unfair.

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