The Ripple Effects of Cheating in Society: A Personal Encounter with Deceit

Cheating has become the order of the day in our society, and it's so disheartening to see such an improper act become part and parcel of society. We've had to deal with it in examinations, relationships, businesses, and the like. I've been a victim of cheating in different ways, but there's one that pained me the most because all I did was try to help. In this article, you'll get to know what happened and how it turned out for me.

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After I graduated from the university, I got a job to work as a storekeeper and a salesman in a gas station, and I worked there for about 6 months thereabout. While working there, I got to meet friends and had regular customers that I'm familiar with, so there are days they might even bring their cylinders and promise to bring money later in the day. In such a case, I do sell to them because they're my regular customers. Of course, I could easily decline that, but inasmuch as my boss won't allow such, he wants us to sell excessively.

Well, on every occasion I do so, the customer usually keeps to their promise and pays the money later that day, although there are a few cases where they fail to keep to their words. On such days, they usually call me on the phone or come in person to apologize, then promise to bring it the next day. One of such customer was a lady who usually comes with her Jeep and fills gas in a cylinder on credit until her husband is back in the evening.

One faithful evening, when I was done with the day job and entering the data of the day's sales, this particular woman walked up to my shop. I even thought she wanted to fill her cylinder until she said she was there for another reason. To cut a long story short, the woman pleaded with me to lend her some money because her son is in the hospital and her husband isn't around. She promised to refund me the next day. I had to let her know I had no money, and as she knows, I'm not the owner of the store but just a salesman.

She kept on pleading, so I decided to lend her some of my daily sales since my boss wouldn't be coming for the money until the next day, and she promised to bring it as early as possible. That was our agreement, or so I thought. By the next day, I had waited all day for this lady but never saw her. By the time my boss came for the previous day's money, I had removed money from my sales from that day to fill up for the previous day, and that was how it continued for almost a month till I was paid my salary, and I used my salary to fill the void.

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It was a painful pill to swallow that I was cheated by that woman, whom I was only trying to help out of pity; she never came to my store after that day, and neither did I see her after that day. It pains me more because I spent about half of my salary on transportation, and now the other half was used to settle a debt I didn't own.

That singular act pained me a lot because I suffered the consequences throughout the next few months. One lesson that was instilled in me was to have a hardened heart and trust no one no matter the situation; unfortunately, that might be to the detriment of others who needed my help, but most times thereafter, I have found it hard to believe someone when they claim to have one problem or another because I tend to have the benefit of the doubt.

Although that has decreased now. But I still have the benefit of doubt once in awhile.

That's all on how I was cheated, and this was written in response to the hive learners community features prompt; you can get more information about it here.

Thanks so much for your time and support.