Poor Yakuza

The Yakuza life, according to Kaz Matsune on Quora:

Here is a story I heard from my father-in-law.

My-father-in law runs a small restaurant in a rural area of Japan for the past 30 years. It’s located in the even remote part of the town.

Because of the restaurant’s location, many customers come to avoid the crowd in the city for a nice quiet sit down meal.(food is very good by the way)

Naturally and eventually, some Yakuza members discovered this quiet establishment, for they too need a place to eat lunch and dinner to avoid crowds. So, they started to come to the restaurant frequently.

Now, my father-in-law is quite a big man for his generation: at the age of 80, he is 183cm (6’1″) tall and weighs 100kg (220lbs). Thanks to his physical feature, he is not easily intimidated, even by the Yakuza.

When one of the Yakuza members noticed his missing pinky finger, their mode suddenly changed. Missing pinky is a sign of Yakuza – whenever they commit a serious mistake (among their organization), it’s their custom to cut their finger off.

“Hey grandpa, what did you do?” one of the Yakuzas asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Your pinky finger.”

“Oh this? My finger got caught in the electric winch on my boat.”

“Your boat?”

“Yes, I am a fisherman also. I go and catch fish and sell, when the restaurant is not so busy.”

“You are not Ex-Yakuza?”

“No. Are you?”

“Yes, we are. We thought you were because your pinky is missing. We thought you slept with your boss’s wife or girlfriend. That’s when we must cut our pinky. We thought you were reckless and courageous, worth admiring.”

“Really? Why courageous?”

“Because you are reckless, we thought.”

“Why is it good to be reckless?”

“Because we cannot be. Police know what we are doing and where we are. They always have their eyes on us.

Read the whole thing.