Years ago as a student in London, England, I was hoping to buy a camcorder. I had no childhood pictures and I didn’t want my children to end up like me. One morning, on my way to school, I met these guys in their vehicle. They said they came to watch their team play from Italy and spent all their money. They just need gas money to get home. They had a Sony camcorder for sale. My eyes opened like one waiting for Baba Ìjẹ̀bú lottery win. I told them I only had £100. They urged me to pay more. I refused.
They accepted my offer and followed me to a gas station with an ATM machine.
The chap was too close to me as I was putting my pin and I asked him to keep off, he did. I withdrew the cash and handed it to him. He handed me a heavy camcorder bag (that I still have) and they sped off. I opened it and discovered two congealed drinks inside.
In London, I started shouting olè, thief and everyone was looking at me like I had lost it. Indeed I did lose it. They disappeared with my hard-saved student allowance.
I went to the police and as I was narrating the process, they helped me fill the dotted lines. They knew the story. I would get an incident report and nothing more.
Years later, I was painfully recounting this event to a man I was meeting for the first time. He looked at me with disdain and asked if I was a Christian or Muslim. I didn’t think my faith had anything to do with the narration, but I professed being Christian. He told me I deserved what I got.
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He explained that if I was the true follower of Christ, I would not attempt to ‘take advantage’ of people claiming to be stranded. I should have given them a gift of whatever I could afford and not try to scam them off their property. That camcorder sold for about £500 in stores.
If you have been scammed by CBEX or any other Ponzi scheme, no apologies, you deserve what you got.
I opened my mouth in surprise. I believe he is right. I learnt the second lesson of trying to get wealthy at other people’s expense.
As a young man, Karl Marx had removed the urge to bet from me. He used the analogy of an old horse that the owner wants to get rid of. He knows the value, but wants more. So, he sells cheap tickets and everybody wants to own the horse. In the end, only one lucky dip wins, but maybe 300 people paid for his win.
The moral of the story is that, betting is as sure a way to wealth as the chances of being hit by lightning.
If you have been scammed by CBEX or any other Ponzi scheme, no apologies, you deserve what you got.
I am in the allergy clinic for my monthly booster shot, you can come and beat me up. After that, I am going to work, you can way lay me on the road or break the government security to come and beat me up.
Ẹni ń wá fà ń wó fò. Jesus told Zacheus – be content with your wages. Ghandhi said that there is enough in this world to meet everyone’s need, but there’ll never be enough to meet everybody’s greed.
Bye.
