I was up rather early in the morning, so I made my way to the food market for a breakfast cum running errands session (getting a new pair of sandals, getting breakfast for my mum, updating my bank book etc). Anyway I was just about to head home when I suddenly remembered that I needed to update the bank book.
Upon arrival at the cash deposit telly machine (CTM) and having taken a good look at the long queue, I did not really have a choice apart from joining in the line for a couple of tens of minutes. Well, that was when things became fuzzy to me -
As I was patiently awaiting for my turn to arrive, I begin to observe the diagonal-right side of my surroundings while my head was still preoccupied with random thoughts. An elderly man (60years old and above, well dressed like an executive heading for work) went up to the now vacated automated telly machine (ATM), which was situated at one machine away from me. It did not occur to me immediately as to how it did to him, and I could not help but notice that he was acting rather strangely; swaying his head from bottom to top and left to right – there was available cash at the dispensary slot.
Even though it had happened in mear seconds, the man hesitated for a moment before proceeding to keep the money into his breast pocket. Since he had already “withdrawn” cash from the ATM, the man obviously had no need to draw again and he simply kept his ATM card back into his wallet and left the machine, not before looking at his surroundings for a few more times. Well, that really surprised me, since I was thinking of how was he going to return the cash to the rightful owner.
And that was when the owner came into the picture – She was looking frantically at the ATM which she had left from moments earlier. To be honest, I could not be sure if she was the owner, due to the fact that I had not seen her in the queue beforehand. I decide to give my gut feel a try and caught her attention by asking what was she looking for.
“My cash that I’ve withdrawn earlier on from that machine” *points to the particular ATM*
“That man over there has your money” *points to the elderly man*
“Who?” *starts looking around*
“There. That man in blue over there” *pointing at the elderly man again*
The lady begin to approach the elderly and asked him politely about the matter while it was my turn to update my bank book.
“He says he didn’t take it”
“It’s him, just ask him again, I’ll be there in a moment” *(-_-”)*
Shaking my head, I went over to them after getting back the bank book. The lady could not get anything out of the elderly, who kept insisting that he had not taken her money. That was when I intervened and suggest to them to check the cctv in the bank to clarify everyone’s doubt.
“Why do I need to watch the cctv when I did not take her money?”
“Excuse me, but another man told me the same thing – that you’ve taken my money” *Apparently, someone else did witness the incident as well, but he left right after telling the lady what he had seen*
“That’s the only way to clear all doubts of this lady’s missing cash, sir”
“I’m in a hurry”
“All the more we shouldn’t waste your precious time. Let’s head into the bank now, shall we sir?”
“Alright, you can see all you want”
Strangely, he started to walk in the opposite direction as us without informing anyone, and that’s when I had to chase after him while the lady went into the bank to seek assistance. Unfortunately, the security guard informed us that we had use the telephone next to the ATM to call their customer service and relate to them the issue at hand. That’s when the matter took a drastic (HOU MAI DOGS) change -
“How much did she withdraw?”
“Thirty dollars”
“Here’s thirty, take it”
“But…”
“Don’t worry, just take it that I’m doing you a favour”
“Huh?”
“Sometimes you need a good samaritan to help you people carry on with life”
“All the more we shouldn’t let you do that for the lady if you didn’t take her money sir, that’s unfair for you”
“What’s thirty dollars to me? If I can help a distress person, I’ll gladly do so”
“Alright then, please allow us to have your contact number so that we can return you the money once we’ve viewed the cctv”
“NOnonoNONOnoNOOnooOoo point doing that. See? By giving you that thirty dollars, I’m saving EVERYONE’S TIME to view anything, RIGHT?”
I just looked at the lady for her response, it was her decision after all.
“Ok. Sure thing”
The man then walked away and before departing with the lady, I began to narrate to her the whole incident, upon her request. She was however quite angry with the elderly for claiming to be a good samaritian as a form of coverup, heh. I just simply shrugged it of and told her at least she had gotten back her money.
Moral of the story: If you ever see free money in the ATM, leave it; it’s a freaking trap. The same need not apply if you ever see free money lying on the floor, just take it; it’s Godsent ;D
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