Eighty percent of celery

After work we sat down in our base. "You know?" - F. was in a talkative mood, as usual - "When I was fifteen I studied for two years to become a builder..." "What?!" - somebody broke in jeeringly - "You studied to become a builder?! I used to be a builder without any studies at all!" "You are Polish!" - protested A. - "Everybody knows that Poles are born builders!" All present nodded their heads in assent. "I studied for two years!" - F. carried on with his storey - "Meanwhile I was paid monthly eighty percent of a regular builder's salary!" "What?!" - somebody either didn't hear him well or basically didn't get it. "He was paid eighty percent of celery." - explained A. "Yeah!" - added somebody else - "Plus twenty percent of tomatoes!" "Yes!" - said F. solemnly - "They kept paying me that money for two years. College was quite distant from my home though, so I had to take a bus and that bus was quite expensive! However" - F. looked at us cunningly as a shithouse rat - "there was another bus for free, going through my city picking up mentally handicapped. So every morning I had been waiting on a bus stop till that free bus arrived and then I was boarding like that!" Pulling faces he advanced twisting his knees and feet towards each other. As we were close to roll on the floor laughing he smiled broadly and added: "I used to talk to driver every time and he liked me. He kept giving me some food and soft drinks. And you know what?" He lowered his voice dramatically. "Once a month prostitutes from Marseille used to come to have sex with us! For free! Government paid for that! You know, it was in France!" - He explained and looked around proudly. "Oh yes! I got many blow jobs from them and sex too!" - He added yearningly.