Turkey Part 2... The Carpet Scam

My least favorite part of Turkey was the constant people trying to sell you something, show you something, take you somewhere, give you a tour... well you get the point.  This was terrible in front of the big sites (the blue mosque and Hagia Sophia).  My natural inclination is to be rude to these people but this trip I tried to be nice and say no thank you and politely walk away.  Unfortunately this did not work, they just kept following so you had to just run.  Well in the blue mosque, I ran out of room to run.  One of these very nice guys began "taking care of us" and helping us get in to see the mosque.  He assured me he wanted no money and just wanted to show his culture to us.  He explained things in the mosque to us, took pictures (good ones I might add since he took my camera from me and went to places I could not) and was our guide.  As he showed us around he kept mentioning his family business very near the mosque.  After our tour he took me to show me the Business.  I went upstairs in a very nice carpet store met his uncle and cousins and had some tea.  They then proceeded to sale me extremely expensive carpets.  The thinking being if I could afford to vacation in Istanbul I could afford carpet.  (shows you what they know!).  I tried to be polite and explain I could not take a carpet on the plane - that would be outrageous.  No problem they ship worldwide!!!!  Finally I knew this was could take forever so I said I could not buy carpet and got up and ran out of the store (really I ran or at least speed walked it right on out the door).

Apparently I was not the first person to fall for this scheme but I wonder how many people actually buy carpet?