I had a local guide with me (a friend of mine for 2 years) so I wasn't getting scammed. I got my $60 in goods and it all worked out in the end. And I found a different lucky charm at the end of the trip that I bought for pennies and just checked it's value in coin magazine In order for this guy to change money he has to walk 5-6 days than take a full day drive to town in order to do anything so this is also why he might have refused.

I have Scarpa vibram sole boots for last few years. After Everest trip last year they started showing wear. I brought it to the local shop that specializes in resoling and they used vibram to change heels on both boots. They looked pristine and perfect but 5 days into the trip they started separating. Glue I used was local crazy glue that smelled exactly the same as the crazy glue we get in the US and it was made in Japan. And yes it held well but at the end of the day it cracked and entire process had to be repeated over. I had to stick with local stuff since I had no other stuff and didn't predict something like that to happen.