Judy Shelton tells a story about her trip to Russia in 1987:

"Things were worse than I expected [in Russia]. My study was based on numbers and looking at government figures and statistics. When you see economic problems on paper, it doesn't hit you as hard as when you go out and see decrepit buildings and lousy roads. Most telling was we had wonderful guides both in Moscow and Leningrad, and the young lady who took care of us in Moscow, she accompanied us to dinner and at the end of the meal sitting on the table was a little stand with some bad peaches. I mean, visibly rotting-with-holes-on-them peaches.

And we had had a sumptuous meal and our guide wasn't interested in having any, but she looked around at the end of the meal and she whispered, 'Are you going to eat that fruit?' And we said, 'No, no we're not.' She said, 'Would you mind if I had some?' 'Of course, help yourself.' And she looked around and she opened her big bag and she dumped it into her bag and the next morning told us her son thanked us, her mother thanked us, her father thanked us, and it was the first fruit they'd had that year."