Taking the bag, the old woman rummages through her faded clothes for a few coins of payment.
Noi looks back over to the young woman, who nimbly moves towards the front of the barge and points at the open crate of cabbages and fruits. Meanwhile, the old woman groans—she has left her money inside the barge. She returns the bag of rice to Noi and hobbles back to the roofed interior.
The young woman says, "Please sir, please take this in exchange for some fruits, the children can't live only on rice. My mother doesn't understand this." She again offers the blue jar to Noi.
Noi feels sorry for the nervous woman and her children. "All right, pick out the ripe fruits, they will go to waste soon." He points at the crate nearest her.
The young woman quickly steps into Noi's skiff and sets the jar next to the crate. She fills her shirt with fruits. She can't stop smiling. Noi is happy too, even though he knew that he could probably sell the fruit at half-price. But what is money? Noi half-jokingly asks himself.
Soon they both hear the old woman's call of satisfaction, she found her money. The smiling young woman skips back into the barge and, bent over with the weight of the fruits, rushes back to her children in the shelter.
"Wait, you forgot this," calls Noi as he holds the blue jar above his head.
"No, that is yours now. Please take it ...my husband ...he used to say it was enchanted, it never lost a fight. Please, take it, it will make money for you."
With those words, the young woman slips behind the reed wall and leaves Noi facing the old woman again.
As she approaches, Noi stretches his hand out to her while kneeling and putting the jar in between the rough stems of cabbage.
The old woman firmly places her coins into Noi's palm. He stands up and gives her the bag of rice. He nods and turns away from her.
Their business is done.
Noi plunges his wooden pole deep into the river and the boat rushes forward. He turns back and covers his eyes against the bright morning sun.
He sees the silhouette of the young woman holding an infant close to her chest.
Very strange, and so sad, Noi tells himself.
Noi set his thoughts on his next stops. He is running late and the canals are crowded. Now it is difficult for Noi to maneuver his boat through the river traffic.
He soon forgets the little blue jar and its mysterious contents.
The day's heat is unbearable. Noi patiently works his way up the canal. He has many unhappy buyers who argue his prices were too high so the bargaining was fierce, but he managed to sell most of his goods. Meanwhile the little blue jar rested in the corner of the boat next to rejected heads of cabbage.
With his shirt pocket full of coins, Noi docks at a Bangkok distributor's warf and clambers out of his boat. He needs to buy the next day's load of produce.
He returns with his arms wrapped around a wooden crate. A boy follows him with two sacks of rice trussed up on his shoulders. They both climb onto the boat and it rocks against the warf. "Just put the sacks there," Noi says and points at the front of the skiff.
Noi kneels down to avoid losing his balance and waits for the boy to set the sacks down. Irritated by the boy's hesitation he asks, "What's the matter?"
"Sir... do you want me to move this? I don't want to disturb it," says the boy.
"What are you talking about?' Noi creeps on his hands and knees to see what the foolish boy is pointing at. 'What is it?" He follows the boy's gaze and sees the blue jar again.