Today, I overheard a conversation about loaned money that
finally got repaid, and the wise advice that we should only lend money that we
could afford to lose. I thought about a time when we did lend money, but only
after we took precautions that we would get paid. Or so we thought!
One day, John received a call from a Singaporean, whom we
didn’t know, who said that he needed help. He named a few photographers whom we
knew, and said, for some reason, he could not contact any of them. (This was in
pre-cellphone days). He said he and his Filipina wife were shopping for clothes
and toys for their children when his clutch bag – which contained his wallet
and passport – was snatched. He just needed a small cash loan –that his brother
in Singapore would repay. It didn’t seem small to me, but he explained that he
didn’t have a credit card and had to pay the small hotel where they were
staying. He also needed to pay cash at the embassy so he could apply for a new
passport.
To put this narrative in the right perspective, let me tell
a background story when John came home amazed and impressed with the honesty of
Singaporeans. John was in Singapore and had left his camera in a public bus.
When he realized that he had left one camera (he was carrying one, and left
behind one), he went back to the bus stop, and tried to wait for the same bus.
He recalled that the driver was Indian, and he remembered the bus number. He
waited. (Thankfully, Singapore is a small city, without Manila’s horrendous
traffic problems). The bus came, but with a different driver. He boarded the
bus but his camera was not on the seat – last row – where he left it. He
inquired with the new driver, who told him that he should go to the bus
terminal. So, he did. As they were nearing the bus terminal, John saw the
Indian driver and ran after him. John was relieved to hear that the bus driver
had surrendered his camera to the bus dispatcher. John said he not only got
back his camera, but also got to memorize every bus that passed in front of
his, now favorite, bus stop.
Fast-forward to the day of this mysterious phone call. With
this experience in mind, John was ready to jump in and come to the rescue of
this man, especially since he’s Singaporean. He wanted to somehow “return the
favor.” But he allowed a little bit of
caution, at my prodding, when this man promised that his brother in Singapore
would repay the loan. John asked him to just ask his brother to give the money
to our friend (a photo equipment supplier). That would be more convenient than
sending money to the Philippines. John would call to verify if our friend had
received the money from this man’s brother. If he did, then John would give this
man the money that he was asking for.
Our friend agreed to wait for the man’s brother to deliver
money to him after the weekend. When John
called him that Monday, he gave John the go-signal to give our mystery man some
money.
John asked me if I wanted to do a good deed, and when I said
yes, he sent me on an errand to buy clothes and toys for this man’s little
boys. He told me that I could give them to him at dinner that night, as he had
invited him and his wife to dinner at Alda’s, a small Italian restaurant in
Ermita.
John lent him the
money, I gave him and his wife the gifts for their children, we treated them to
dinner, and we all had a pleasant time, although I did observe that she was
mostly quiet.
After a few days, we heard from other photographer-friends
that they had been victimized by this scammer. Hopeful that we were spared from
having been duped by the precautions we took, we called our friend in Singapore
to confirm that he had, indeed, received payment before giving us the go-signal
to give the man our money. Ruefully, he
told us that the man’s brother never came! He apologized and narrated his own
experience of losing his wallet and passport while on a train in Italy. He said
that he was sorry that he sympathized with his compatriot whom he thought was
in a similar situation in the Philippines.
We could not blame our friend – after all, we were just
asking him the favor of helping ensure that we would have an honest
transaction.
We didn’t know where to find this man so that we could
confront him, until a few weeks later, when John saw a newspaper article about
a Singaporean swindler. It was him! He was being detained at a prison in
Manila.
John rushed to go there. Without me. He said he added his
testimony to an apparently long list of others whom this man had victimized. I
was proud of him for doing his civic duty.
John’s story had a postscript.
He said he saw the man’s wife on the steps outside the jail.
He pulled out a five-hundred-peso bill from his wallet, handed it to her, while
solicitously admonishing her, “This is for you. Go get something to eat. Don’t
give this to him.” And he repeated, “This is for you.”
I couldn’t believe what I just heard! How could he give her
money – after what they did to us? Didn’t he think they were into these scams
together? At the very least, she must
have known what her husband was doing! We had dinner together and she neither
said a word nor dropped a hint.
But I paused and stopped, and in a complete turnaround, instead
of being incredulous, I looked at him with great admiration for his kind
gesture to this poor woman. Indeed, she might have been in cahoots with her
scam-scheming husband, but I wondered, if John’s kindness touched her enough to
help her turn away from, possibly, a life of crime?
I’ll never know, but I certainly hope so.
