Trust is Earned
Here in Nigeria, we have this Point of Sale machines commonly known as POS machine everywhere. People go to the owners of this machines to withdraw money whenever we don't have the time to go to an ATM machine due to the distance. The POS business is literally booming over here and you can find their shops everywhere.
There's this lady's POS shop that I love to withdraw from. She's an elderly lady and I think that is the major reason why I go to her shop.
There was this particular morning, on my way to school. I had gone to her shop to withdraw the sum of six thousand naira and had immediately headed for school without even checking the debit alert that was sent to my phone after the withdrawal. Halfway to school, I received a call on my phone and after the call, I noticed I had an unread message. It was the debit alert but then I realized that the lady had made a huge mistake on the withdrawal.
I had asked her to withdraw the sum of six thousand naira but she had withdrawn six hundred naira instead, meaning that she now had a loss of over five thousand, four hundred naira.
I didn't know what to do. A part of me said to go to school and then give her the remaining balance on my way back but another part asked me to turn back immediately. I know some of you might be asking if no part of me asked me to take the money for myself but you see, this was an elderly woman who was trying to make ends meet and there was no way I was going to do that to her.
I knew she would be troubled the moment she realized her mistake and I couldn't live with that so I immediately turned back and headed for her shop. When I got there, and explained to her what happened, she immediately started praying for me. According to her, she had just realized her mistake and was finding it hard to remember the person she made the withdrawal for.
After that event, I later came to realized that something changed. Unlike in the past when I go to make withdrawal from her and she would ask that I wait for her to process the transaction before she gave me my money, she now gives me the money without even asking me to wait anymore. It now as if she trusts me totally and I've never been so happy.
Truly, trust is earned and not given.