Vít Chaloupka

“Money exchanging was officially banned but I would like to emphasise that compared with today, we had nothing in common with any real criminal activity, it was just innocent. We kept the foreign currency in the country, just exchanged them — the foreigners were happy, we were happy, the country was happy. Compared to today’s shady business we did nothing wrong. Yes, our activities could be looked at askance, but all currency remained within the Czech Republic. Now all the money is gone, stolen and taxpayers must pay for sins of gangsters and villains. Nobody had to pay anything for me, I never stole anything, just exchanged money to foreign tourists at a rate that was better for them. Naturally, we used this to improve our standard of living but we never stole anything from anybody.”

“At the hotel I started as a potboy with a broom and, in livery, I had to sweep the place around the entrance, even when the Wenceslas Square was full of people. To sweep in livery was quite a horrible experience, passers-by sometimes laughed at me, but I suffered this through because I had my pockets full of foreign currencies; I just thought, ‘Just laugh, you idiots, you can see the richest sweeper in Prague.’”