Arriving in Delhi - the taxi scam

After thirty hours of travel, with little sleep in a cramped airplane, I stumble off in Delhi, change some money, find my luggage and go off to the prepaid taxi stand, per my hosts instructions. I was told to pay not more than 400 rupees for the cab ride - it was more because it was the middle of the night. I go to the taxi stand at the airport, and they ask me if I want air conditioning, because they are out of air conditioned cars. Thinking it might be hot, or about the pollution in Delhi, I say yes, so they send me to the next counter. This is what we used to call the "bait & switch" method. They show me a list with a fare reading 1100 rupees. Since I am so exhausted and brain fogged from almost 30 hours with no sleep, I don't try to argue - I just thought maybe my hosts were mistaken. Silly me.
My hosts were very upset with me and the cab drivers who rip people off - turns out this was a scam operation designed to hit up "first time to India" foreigners...

However, I would continue to notice the seeming "national past time" of trying to put one over - but it was not limited to cheating foreigners.