The author George Mikes, having described in detail how ‘bowing’ is followed so ritualistically in Japan, towards the end of the article narrates an incident that happened in one of the parts in Nara, a deer park in Japan. The author bought a pack of food for a deer. On seeing the pack of food, the deer went up to him, looked into his eyes and bowed to him deeply. Then, almost immediately, it jumped at him and snatched the little food-bag from his hand.

Using this incident as an analogy, George Mikes makes fun of the Japanese people, for their ugly behaviour while boarding a bus. He tells the reader in a sarcastic tone that we can often see the Japanese bowing to each other with ceremonious serenity even at bus-stops. Then he says, “as soon as the bus arrives, the bowing gentlemen are transformed into savages, they push each other aside, tread on each other’s toes and shove their elbows into each other’s stomachs”. The reader, who had all along been encouraged to develop a kind of admiration for the Japanese habit of respectful bowing, is shocked or stunned by this revelation.