Creativenonfiction #75 - The Unfortunate Incident
This prompt reminded me of something that happened to a friend of mine some months back.
I was home one day and was a bit bored, so I scrolled through my contact list and saw one of my friend's numbers. I remembered I promised her a visit whenever I had some free time, so I dialed her number.
"Grrnnn grrrnnn", the phone rang as I placed it to my ears waiting for her to pick up.
"Hello", I said into the phone as I knew she had picked up the call.
"Hmmm, this one you called me today, it seems you dreamt about me"
"No o, I missed you" I said while smiling.
"Are you at home?" I asked
"Of course, you know I am always at home, you just always like to break your promises about visiting me" She said, mocking me.
"That's why I called, I will be coming around tomorrow"
"Hmmm, indeed like you promised to come around the last time?"
"This time I am serious, you will see me in your house tomorrow" I said giving her my word again.
"OK, let's wait and see if you will show up". We talked for a few more minutes before hanging up.
The next day, I got ready to visit her. The journey to her place was about a 1-and-a-half-hour drive from my place, so I left early because I planned to spend a lot of time with her.
When I got to her place, I met her in her shop arranging some things. She rented one of the shops in front of her house where she sells foodstuffs. She was surprised to see me and quickly left what she was doing and hugged me.
"I never knew you would be coming around for real, I thought you wouldn't keep to your promise as usual"
"It's not like that, I have just been busy with work"
"Hmmm, Mrs Workaholic. it's a good thing you are on break now so you can have time for us", she said while we both sat down.
We spoke briefly before she stood up and continued doing what she was doing before I came around. As I watched her, I couldn't help but notice her shop was a bit scanty.The last time I visited the shop was overflowing with goods, and I know her not to be a reckless spender.
One of the things I love about her is her minimalist nature. She is very hardworking and doesn't live extravagantly. She caught me looking around and I knew I just had to ask what happened to her shop.
"It's a long story rukkie, but first, let's prepare something to eat and I will tell you afterward"
"You just read my mind because I want to eat your delicious jollof rice".
"This girl, you will never change", She shook her head she went inside to bring me food and she also brought out a chilled drink from her fridge.
I ate the food while she finished with what she was doing. After I was done eating, we talked about random things before I reminded her she promised to tell me what happened with her shop.
"I was duped" she dropped the news like a bombshell.
"What!!!? I exclaimed" "How?"
Then she started telling me about this thrift contribution she was into. The way it works is that someone (the thrift collector) will go around and collect daily contributions from those interested. People contribute as little as smaller denominations to bigger denominations.
The person in charge gives these people cards that they mark daily as they pay. This method is mostly common amongst traders, as they can easily remove the money from their sales every day for savings.
People who aren't traders also partake in this method of savings. They only pay a token for the card and also a token as a service fee to the person in charge. They can collect their money whenever they want with no additional charges.
Most people prefer this method because it's very convenient as the person will come directly to them for them to deposit the money, they don't have to wait in queues to get their money as no form of charges upon charges which is usually common with saving in banks.
But while this method is very convenient to most people, I am not okay with it because I can easily keep money myself. I once had a piggyback where I saved my money and when I noticed it was too much, I would take it to the bank and save it in my account.
So back to our discussion, she told me she has been doing it for a while but then she saves as little as #200 daily but she decided to increase her savings to #3000 daily so she could have a large amount to stock her shop at a go.
She told me she knew something was amiss whenever she didn't see him(the thrift collector) on the first day and the second day. She said she tried after calling his number but it was unavailable. That was when she heard from one of her customers who happened to also be saving with the man that the man was nowhere to be found.
"Haaaaa, I screamed out loud, When did it happen?"
"About a week ago, I and those who knew where he stayed went to his house and found his room empty"
She further explained that they were able to contact the landlord of the house where he resides and the landlord said he was also surprised to hear the news that he had moved out since his rent is not due for another three months.
"How much have you saved so far", I asked with my mouth still wide open from the shock.
"I do contribute #3000 daily and I have saved for close to 1 and half months now"
"That's about #130,000 or thereabout", I said, standing up as I wasn't feeling comfortable sitting from all I was hearing.
"What did you do then?"
"What will I do? There is no way to contact him as he has no family around, so I just have to let the money go"
"Just like that?"I asked, still reeling from the shock even though I wasn't the victim.
She shrugged. "I believe that someday nemesis will catch up with him".
The way she acted like it's water off a duck's back and tried brushing it off as one of life's experiences is applauding but something tells me maybe she might just be trying so hard to mask her pain.
"You are very strong, I don't even want to imagine myself in such a situation", I said still surprised at how calm she was.
"Crying and sulking won't bring the person back or my money back. I would rather continue to work and let it go".
She changed the topic and we talked about something else but my mind kept going back to what happened to her. If I were in such a situation, it would weigh me down to lose money like that because I know just how much I work hard to save, and seeing people trying to reap others off always gets me angry.
Posted Using InLeo Alpha
I have heard many similar cases and it's sad to know that many of this thrift collectors are dubious. There was really nothing she could do about the issue than to let go, I feel sorry for her though.
That's one of the reason why I am not comfortable with giving someone I don't know my money to save for me. It's so sad but she is already pulling through.
Thank you so much for stopping by.
Hmm I heard a lot of these kinds of stories growing up, but didn't realize people still use this system of saving.
I can understand the convenience but it's still a risky way to save. The thrift collector has also made it harder for those he duped to trust other people in money related matters.
It is very risky and I think it's not as rampant as before. There was a time you hardly see people who doesn't do it.
Thank you for coming around.
Excellent determination on the part of your friend. In cases like this, the normal reaction is to want to solve things in any way, driven by frustration and disappointment for being deceived. From my point of view, I support your friend's decision as that generates more tranquility and satisfaction, letting everything happen without affecting us more than we should 🙂
Greetings @rukkie 👋
She showed great strength in handling the issue.
Greetings to you and thank you for your time here.
This is an amazing story of resilience, @rukkie. Your friend's choice to continue working and enjoying her shop, instead of falling apart and grieving the loss of her money shows that she is a smart and mature business owner.
Your story is nicely told! We do, however, have some feedback for you. You should take care to use proper punctuation every time, as I affects the quality of your content. Here are a few examples where the punctuation is missing.
If you read your stories carefully before posting, you will most likely see those issues.
Thank you for sharing your creative nonfiction story in The Ink Well, and for reading and commenting on the work of other community members. Keep writing!
I will work more on checking my contents for errors.Thank you so much for the feedback and your support @theinkwell
In our lives we will always encounter people who want to take advantage of us. The girl's calmness is enviable and she is very right in what she said, crying and being sad will not return the money. I think she was aware of the risk in the investment.
Thanks for sharing your experience with us.
Good day.
Thank you for stopping by.
Many issues of this type has happened and I hope that people will learn from these cases to not save their money with ajo people, the bank is there and even profiting.
Well, its a pity fir this hard time if e happen, na to curse person, hehe
#dreemport
😂😂😂😂 premium curse. I wonder how some people are just so comfortable with scamming others.
I know she had learned her lessons. Thank you for stopping by, awesome dreemer.
That is a terrible thing to happen to someone trying build up her business. Things like this made me not to get myself involve with those contribution of a thing.
Your friend is a very strong person to still be able to hold it all together like that, and I wish her a quick recovery of her
losses.
#dreemerforlife
Like I was just looking at her, the eat it didn't seem to affect her much. I don't even want it to be me because I might just faint.
Thank you for stopping by sis.
Quite unfortunate.
I don't think I'm capable of trusting just anyone with my hard earned money knowing people act strange when money is involved. I have seen people do great things with thrift contribution but I will never get involved in such thing. I prefer to save my money in a place I can be rest assured nothing funny will happen to it.
Pop in from #dreemport
#Dreemerforlife
Exactly. You get to know people's true nature when money is involved. So I rather just keep my money in a piggy bank.
Thank you for stopping by, awesome dreemer.
You mean piggyvest {piggybank} or the local piggy bank called "kolo"
It's kolo o and I can always take the money to the bank when it's a bit much.
Hmmm
I don't trust kolo
What if the kolo gets stolen 😅