Although my upbringing has a lot to my way of life, I was raised by a disciplinary officer who doesn't condone nonsense. If I mistakenly bring what doesn't belong to me home, I always need a lawyer to speak on my behalf whether my actions are justified or not just to reduce my punishment, she hates to hear things like I kept for a friend or borrowed something from a friend.
My mom instilled the fear of doing away with things that don't belong to me and I have lived with the training all my life.
I am a person who naturally loves to always do what's right when dealing with others regardless of what could be involved. My conscience is very strong and I always feel very disturbed whenever I decide to turn away from the proper thing I need to do.
This habit has made people find me trustworthy wherever I lived or worked and I can tell that there are a lot of benefits in it for me.
A shot from a recent shopping
If I returned home and realized that one of the items I bought was not included in my payment receipt which means I didn't pay for it, I will definitely return there to make the payment for the goods that were omitted.
I haven't experienced such a thing before and the experience I had was more than just the cashier omitting one of the goods I bought. I will share the story later in the post and going back to make the payment is what I will definitely do.
Many would have said that it is the loss of the store owner when things like that happen but it is not a joy for me as a person to eat up what doesn't belong to me.
When defining humanity, we speak big grammar and a simple action just as returning the money for the goods that weren't registered on the receipt is enough example to explain what it means to prove that there is humanity left in us as an individual.
During the recent scarcity of cash in Nigeria, I switched to buying goods with my debit card since the charges to withdraw cash from the POS were on the high side. To make things worse, not all shops were accepting transfers or the use of ATM for payment because Banks were also messing up at that time.
Many transactions were been reversed and many shop owners were running at a loss because most of the buyers usually don't find any reason to make the payment again.
It was on a weekend, I went to get some groceries from a store that accepts a transfer and use of ATM far from my residence. After picking the things I needed, I brought out my card but the POS service provider was down at that moment so I asked if I could make the transfer. The woman was reluctant at first but she agreed and I made the payment.
I gave her my phone to confirm the payment, she couldn't check at her end because the network was down. She had nothing to worry about since the transaction was marked successful on my end.
That day passed and I noticed an increase in my wallet balance. I called those who I know could send money to me but they all said no so I waited patiently for the sender to call.
The screenshot of the transactions
I went to check something on my email when I saw the reversal message of the money I sent to the woman. My bank app didn't update the transaction detail but it was available in my mail so I resend the money and went to inform the woman.
She was happy and I felt the same way as well, depriving her of the reward of her labor is a terrible thing to do. I would have felt bad if I was the woman and I discovered that my money was missing when trying to balance my account.
Resending the money made the woman trust me so much that she doesn't even confirm my transaction anymore whenever I visit her store and even when I insist, she always said, " I trust you".
There is nothing special about refunding the money because I believe in a fair world, it was the right thing for me to do. It is easy for me to just spend the money on other things but my conscience will make me pay for more than that particular money when it starts haunting me.
It is not my first time refunding such money, I believe in just doing good so that good things will always come my way as well. As I said earlier, it's not a big deal to refund money when issues like that happen, it is just the right thing to do.
The weekend engagement challenge comes up every weekend on Hive. @Galenkp, the creator of the community gives various topics to choose from and it is always fun participating.
Feel free to check these weekend engagement topics and choose one to write about.