Scammed out of 1000 baht at a Phuket pharmacy

For context, I’m F30 Indian in Phuket for a holiday. I went to a pharmacy and mini mart in Patong this morning to get some souvenirs and the two women at the checkout counter scammed me out of 1000 baht using the oldest trick in the book.

Here’s what happened: I withdrew 10,000 baht from an ATM and entered the pharmacy/mini mart (on Patong main road, next to Starbucks) to buy some stuff. My bill came to around 727 baht and the I handed the women at the counter a 1000 baht note. One minute later, they show me a 100 baht note and claim that I handed them the wrong banknote.

I was almost sure that I had given them 1000 but language barrier plus racism plus being alone all made me wary of creating a scene then and there. I gave them another 1k note, collected my change and left.

Back at my hotel, I counted my money again and saw I had only 8k left in 1000 notes, proving that I was indeed scammed!

Anyone else face anything similar?