Somebody has to trust first

A corner shop in one of the older streets of Ajman keeps a ledger behind the counter. Regulars who are short a few dirhams take what they need and settle next time. The owner writes it down and rarely chases anyone.

Ask people what they want from the places they buy from, and trust comes up quickly. They want to be believed when they bring something back. They want to be treated as someone who will pay. They want to be known.

Ask the same people whether they would extend that to someone they had just met, and the answer shifts. Most of us want to be trusted far more than we are prepared to go first and trust.

That gap is not a moral failing. It is caution, and caution is reasonable. But it means the thing nearly everyone wants is in short supply, and anything in short supply is valuable to whoever is willing to provide it.

The shop with the ledger is not naive. It loses a little now and then, and the owner knows exactly how much. In return it holds something its bigger neighbours cannot buy: a street full of people who feel that somebody in commerce assumed the best of them. They come back for bread and batteries they could buy anywhere.

The same holds for being introduced to the right person, or being treated with respect. We wait for it to arrive and hesitate to hand it out.

What is scarce is not trust itself. It is people willing to give it before they get it. That is the opening, and almost anyone can walk through it.