Popular in Mediterranean countries, worry beads are most often carried by men, and are used very much in the same way as the rosary. Typically carried in the front pocket, the use of the worry beads is often mistaken for a less morally correct means of easing stress.

Worry beads are most frequently sold by street vendors in Athens. They do not, however, prevent or ease worry, unless your culture dictates that they should. If you are not born into this craze, it will never catch up with you. You will be approached by the street vendors none the less - they, after all, have their own worries to worry about. Keep walking, and protest in a loud voice that the beads are too expensive and will cause you more worry than they will ever resolve. Don't stop. Don't look back. Not even when your street vendor throws himself at your feet and clings to your ankle, pleading the poverty of himself and his sixteen children and his ailing mother. These are his worries. Not yours. You have no place in solving them by buying into his elaborate confidence trick. Your vendor will soon realise that you are not to be moved on the matter and will give up, settle back into his place and try the same trick on the next tourist who happens past.