As in all areas of life, financial lessons are often learned the hard way.
My most recent lesson was to keep your eye on the funds at all times and trust no one.
I’ll spare you all of the boring details, but I basically got shamed out of $800 in my work’s finance office. I counted out funds twice in front of one of the finance folks to return an advance. I then turned to deal with clearing another advance in local currency, with a second finance person.
The next thing I know, the first finance person counted out $800 less than I had just counted out in front of her. (It was a large sum, in case you are wondering how the count could be off by that much.)
I had been shammed. Right in front of me. In my own office.
After all of my travels and all the precautions I take to not get taken advantage of, I felt cheated.
In the end my office ruled that I should have had her do the cross check right away (even though she had been present through both counts). If it were a matter of a hundred dollars it wouldn’t be that big of a deal and I would have just blamed it on myself. It’s another thing when $800 disappears before your very eyes.
I believe this is by far the biggest money mistake I’ve made in the sense of being stolen from. I’ve had a camera taken in Peru and $20 souvenir in the form of a counterfeit bill, but never anything to this degree.
There goes $800.
I guess I can tell myself that I’m contributing to an Afghan family by having just doubled the finance person’s salary. I can’t say that I need it more than they do, but it would have felt better to have it happen voluntarily. I would feel very differently about giving that much rather than having it taken in such a way.
Unfortunately it is experiences like these that make us travelers a bit more guarded, and often jaded. I’m now in Vietnam, as I was headed to the airport when the incident happened, and find myself being much more conservative with my trust of others. While I know it is good to keep my guard up, I also prefer not to have an inherent lack of trust either. We are all just people in the end.
This brings to mind a lengthy discussion at a recent expat dinner party. The discussion basically debated whether it was better to trust cleaners, cooks, etc. Or whether it was better not to provide any temptation (i.e. don’t leave a dollar on the table or money in your pockets going to the laundry). The debate was long and engaging where no one had a lack of an opinion or experience related to the situation.
I guess my lesson would have me fall on the side of not allowing for opportunities to be ripped off. Like James often says, crime happens only when the opportunity presents itself.
Lesson learned.
Miel
No Comments yet!