Is that how the cookie crumbles?

Kids say and do the darn est things. Sweetie pie's ever-expanding vocabulary now has phrases like 'no way' or 'go away' which she uses generously at home. The fact that she’s shy and usually does not talk much in
front of strangers makes her seem less rebellious and well behaved. But don’t let the quiet manner fool you. She knows what she wants and will not hesitate to ask for it.
There's this desi lady Mrs G who provides homemade rotis. I usually pick up some from her every so often. Most of the times I pick them up on my way home from work, but a couple of times I have
taken sweetie pie with me to pick up rotis . On these occasions Mrs. G has always given sweetie pie a couple of cookies, and to my satisfaction, sweetie pie has responded with 'thank you'. All was well
until one day a few weeks ago sweetie pie and I showed up at Mrs. Gs place for our rotis . Mrs. G was busy talking to me and forgot to offer a cookie to sweetie pie. My little cookie monster waited for 5
minutes and then interrupted our conversation by stretching her hand out towards Mrs. G, looking her in the eye and saying 'Cookie?’
This, from a toddler who has no interest in any kind of food(including cookies) what so ever when at home. I was embarrassed and immediately started scolding sweetie pie. She got her cookie and did not understand what the fuss was all about. I knew I needed to teach her not to ask people for stuff but I could not figure out how to do it. So I decided to try something. The next time I took her to Mrs. G’s place, I took a bunch of cookies in a ziploc bag and showed the bag to sweetie pie. I kept insisting that it is not nice to ask other people for anything and that she should not ask Mrs. G for anything and that if she did as I said, I
would give her the bag of cookies that I had with me. This seemed to have worked, as no cookie was demanded. In fact Mrs. G’s offer of cookie did not receive any response. The next time, I gave her the bag
of cookies but no instructions. To my surprise, no cookie was demanded. Then last week I took her to Mrs. G’s house without a bag of cookies or instructions and once again no cookie was demanded. I was very proud of my little angel. She seemed to have received the message. But what message…I’m not sure. May be it is “If I ask for cookie, mean mommy yells at me, so I can only ask for a cookie if I’m with Daddy” .
My tactics will probably backfire the way my friend’s mom’s did in the story that I’m about to tell you. My friend swears it is a true story.
My friend grew up in a joint family with a lot of kids. When they visited someone’s place, it was hard to keep an eye on everyone to make sure they behaved, so her mom would give them a bunch of strict
instructions. One of the instructions was that if any food was offered, they would not pounce on the food. They could may be take one cookie each and then say that they were full. The kids usually obeyed this and
were well behaved on most occasions. One late evening, they were visiting a friend’s place with her mom and were offered cookies, candies and some snacks. The kids took only one small item each and
thanked the hostess. Then suddenly there was a power outage and the whole house plunged into darkness. When the lights came back on in about 10 minutes, they unveiled a crime scene…all the food was gone
from the plates and there was evidence in the form of cookie bites and candy on the little monsters’ clothes and faces. Needless to say the kids receive a nice thrashing on their behinds on getting home!
I wonder if I’ll face a similar situation someday. Ah well, may be …that’s the way the cookie crumbles!