It’s a good thing to help people out when they are stuck in a rut. Truly. Unfortunately, sometimes, your action might come back to bite you in the ass. I spoke to 4 people about the times they’d regretted playing Good Samaritan. Here’s what they had to say.
Kabir, 30
Someone asked me for loan of 100k October last year. I didn’t have the money then so I had to loan it from a mutual friend of ours, with me standing as a kind of guarantor. She said she’d been needing it for only 2 weeks but she defaulted.
Fast forward three months and she hadn’t paid back. Even worse, she hadn’t even told the person I loaned the money from anything. When I asked why, she claimed she “didn’t know what to say.” Long story short, I paid off the money, she kept lying to me and I wrote it off as a bad debt.
Kamsi, 21
A friend of mine asked for a loan to organise a pageant, and I gave it to her. She promised she would pay on a set day. The day came and passed I heard nothing from her. I texted her and she insulted me for disturbing her for MY money.
I tried to reach her brother too, but that didn’t work either. They were both ignoring me. After a while, she reached out to my family to lie about me, telling them that I was a cultist and was threatening her life. Never again.
Dorothy, 26
First of all, as a Nigerian doctor, you will occasionally bite the finger of regret after helping certain patients. One time, some people brought in someone with a head injury. He was referred to my hospital because he desperately needed neurosurgeon. Unfortunately, we didn’t have bedspace, so we could not admit him. We told him to go another center. That’s how they all refused to leave.
So I talked to the guy to calm him down and explain that going to another center was for their benefit. I thought he understood and he even thanks me. Next thing, a consultant at my hospital started shouting and blaming me for the situation. Can you believe this guy was smiling all the while the consultant was yelling at me? I was only involved because I tried to help him.
Ebelechukwu, 28
I co-own a food business. We sell grilled fish and chip. I had this friend (now ex-friend) who everyone had a bad story about. This guy came to the bar where we sell from. He told me he wanted to support my business. He said I should do three packs of grilled fish for his mom, girlfriend and himself and that he’d pay me when he gets home because he doesn’t have cash at the moment.
Omo, I felt the red flags spring up but we hadn’t made any slares that day and night don near. So I said fuck the red flags. Let’s just say that till today, that transfer never come.
