It’s understandable when adult shoppers get mistaken for store employees.

But children being mistaken as employees is another thing. This 10-year-old girl was simply walking around a store stall when an older woman approached her, thinking she was a shop assistant.

Read below for the full story.

My 10 year old sister doesn’t work here, Lady

Technically, I guess it’s my sister’s story, but here we are.

My siblings and I are on vacation in a seaside town known for being fairly quiet and family-friendly. It’s mid-June, so it’s starting to get crowded but not a ton (school ended this week here).

Last night we were walking around the center and stopped at a shop that has a large space outside (but still under a roof, a sort of open porch) full of shelves and stalls and baskets of things.

We approached one of the stalls, the classic ones with 1-2 euro items, because we needed some clothespins, and while we were considering which ones to get my little sister of 10 years old (she looks maybe a little bigger but not by much) walked around the stall and then came back to us.

An older lady approached the little girl, thinking she was an employee.

At this point, this lady, old but not too old (maybe 60-70 years old), approached us and held out her hand with some coins inside towards my child sister, saying “here, here!”

We were all shocked for a moment, the first impression was that the lady was giving money to my sister to buy something.

Probably the lady realizes our expressions and says to us, always with a fairly high tone of voice, “Who do I have to give the money to?!”

At this point, we notice that she has a package of something in her hand, and we answer “we are customers too, the cash register to pay is inside the shop.”

She answers us, “ah, I thought the girl was here to check the stall since before she was on the other side, and I had to pay her,” and she went away.

…What can I say, child labor is beautiful, and without receipts too.

Maybe working kids are pretty common in the town.

Other people are piping up in the comments.

Here’s a hilarious remark.

Another funny suggestion.

This one shares a related story.

This user is chiming in.

And here’s a valid response.

When child labor is the norm, it’s time to leave.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.