The hobbits manage to get into Bree through a hidden doorway in the wall. As they walk through the streets of Bree, huddled together in the rain, we see a sequence of scenes: Strange looking Breelanders with French accents stepping on the hobbits feet, Sam reaching to pinch Frodo's bottom, Merry playing with a broken carrot. Homeless hobbits and men, who look suspiciously like wraiths, bound in black cloaks, shrieking for spare coins, when a little hobbit comes running up to the four and asking them for some money.
Hobbit: Alms for an ex-wraith. Bloody donkey owners. All the same, aren't they? Never have any change. Oh, here's a touch. Spare a talent for an old ex-wraith.
Sam: Buzz off!
Hobbit: Spare a talent for an old ex-wraith.
Sam: A talent? That's more than he inherits in a month.
Hobbit: Half a talent, then.
Sam: No, go away!
Hobbit: [Ignoring Sam, speaks to Frodo.] Come on, Bald chin. Let's haggle.
Frodo: What?
Hobbit: All right. Cut the haggling. Say you open at one silver coin. I start at two thousand. We close about eighteen hundred.
Frodo: No.
Hobbit: Seventeen-fifty?
Sam: Go away!
Hobbit: Seventeen-forty.
Sam: Look. Will you leave him alone?
Hobbit: All right. Two silver coins. Just two. Isn't this fun, eh?
Sam: Look, he's not giving you any money so sod off!
Hobbit: All right, sir. My final offer: half a silver coin for an old ex-wraith.
Frodo: Did you say... 'ex-wraith?
Hobbit: That's right, sir. Sixteen years behind the shroud, and proud of it, sir.
Frodo: Well, what happened?
Hobbit: I was cured, sir.
Frodo: Cured?
Hobbit: Yes, sir, a bloody miracle, sir. Eru bless you.
Frodo: Who cured you?
Hobbit: Gandalf did sir. I was screeching along, minding my own business. All of a sudden, up he comes, Cures me. One minute I'm a wraith with a trade, next minute me livelihoods gone. Not even so much as a "by your leave". No no no… "You're cured my hobbit."…. Bloody do-gooder.
Merry: Well, why don't you go and tell him you want to be a wraith again?
Hobbit: Ah, yeah. I could do that, sir. Yeah. Yeah, I could do that, I suppose. What I was thinking was, I was going to ask him if he could make me a bit white in the face, and make my voice go up during the middle of the week. You know, something beggable, but not wraith hood, which is a pain in the arse, to be blunt. Excuse my French, sir, but, uh--
Sam: Frodo, we should be getting to that Inn now…
Frodo: [Hands the ex-wraith a silver coin] There you are.
Hobbit: Thank you, sir. Thanks-- Half a shilling for me bloody life story?
Frodo: There's just no pleasing some people.
Hobbit: That's just what Gandalf said sir!