How many bags make one?

A lot of airlines state that 'only one bag may be carried on board', but many passengers, and I hate to say it, but it is mostly women, seem unable to count to one.

People seem to think that ONE handbag or laptop bag, ONE carry on case and ONE Duty Free bag together count as their one piece of hand luggage.

I don't understand what the difficulty is.  If the rules state one piece, just take one piece instead of arguing with the airline staff and holding everyone up.

Liquids in carry on luggage seem to cause issues too.

Again, the instructions are clear.  Individual bottles no more than 100ml each, and all must fit into a 1 litre clear plastic bag which can be sealed closed.  There are some exceptions in the case of medication and baby milk.

These are not new, or hard to understand, rules, and yet I always seem to get stuck behind someone at Security screening who has chosen to ignore them.

Do you follow the rules, or do you try to bend them when travelling?