They lived in Soviet Azerbaijan and people usually bought and brought back good-quality items and clothes from Moscow. Once in Moscow, he was approached by a lady - a "walking shopper" - in a park who offered some stuff for sale (he doesn’t know how to name such a person). His dad chose a scarf and paid 25 rubles. As soon as he paid, the lady panicked that a militia (Soviet police) was coming, because this kind of shopping/selling was illegal in the USSR. Dad took the packed scarf from her and left in a hurry. At home he found out that it was not the scarf she had offered. It seems that the lady, the ‘walking shopper,’ worked in collusion with the police, and, amidst the panic they created, his dad's attention was misled and she could replace the 25-ruble scarf with a cheap one. Perhaps his dad was excited and therefore easily confused, because of the young lady rather than the police. His mom still laughs at his dad because of the scarf and the lady. His dad has never connected the story to the lady, but only to the police. For him, this story represents a divide between center (Moscow, Russia) and periphery (Soviet Azerbaijan) in terms of economy, quality of life, culture, and popular perceptions.