MY friend Todd was going for a short stay in Bermuda. Just before his departure, he borrowed a dollar from me to pay off the taxi.
When Todd wrote a letter to me from Bermuda, I expected a dollar bill in the envelope.
Todd has returned from Bermuda but has not bothered to return the one dollar to me. I being the lender am too decent to offend my friend by demanding my dollar back. However, the thought that Todd had borrowed the dollar bothered me, and I made some futile attempts to get back the dollar.
First, I went to the railway station to receive Todd when he returned from Bermuda. He found Todd very cheerful, but at all ashamed that he had not returned his loan of a dollar. Later, during an evening brunch, I raised the topic of the American dollar and asked whether it was used in Bermuda too. Todd did not get the hint about the unpaid dollar.
I met Todd almost daily in the Club; however, Todd did not refer about the due dollar. One day, Todd is disapprovingly observed that Poland had defaulted its debts. I was very much upset that Todd did not consider his un-paid debt. Annoyed at Todd’s irresponsible attitude, I wrote off his loaned dollar and added Todd’s name to his list of defaulters of one-dollar loans.
I, offended and distraught, accepts that forgetting to repay loans was a human frailty. The distressed by the thought that he could have taken such loans and not repaid it. Tormented with guilt, I desired that his creditors would claim their repayments. Haunted by the disquiet of loan defaults, I wished to initiate a “Back to Honesty’ campaign. I am persuaded that honesty should be the core of all nations seeking greatness.
I did not desire his ‘forgetful’ friend to know of the agony I had undergone because of the non-payment of the debt and I request all the readers not to bring the copies of the story to the University Club Montreal patronised by Major Todd.
ns 15.158.61.48da2
