Tuesday, October 30, 2007

What If...?

What if out of the blue you get Rs.1 lakh into your account with no knowledge of who credited it?
What if no one claimed that money for more than a month?

What would you do in this situation?

What if you transferred your friend's Rs.1 Lakh to some stranger inadvertently instead of transferring to that friend's mom and you didn't realize that for about one and a half months? What if that stranger has only Rs.50 left in his account by the time you realized your mistake and checked his account to get the money back?

What would you do in this situation?

Quite a situation, eh?

At times without realizing the cost of failure we make silly mistakes which could have been avoided by a few seconds of double checking. That's what I made when I missed to double check my friend's mom's ICICI account number before transferring Rs.1 Lakh. Incorrect one digit cost me stress, restlesness, agony and my sleep for two weeks.

Unfortunately my friend took more than a month to confirm that money did not reach his mom. With the help of a known branch manager when I checked that stranger's account, I was shocked to learn that he had only Rs.50 in his account. To add more fuel into the fire, I also learnt that that account is a salary account and that person's salary is just Rs.4000. BOOM.....!!!

With the help(?!) of police I have got Rs.75,000 back and a written statement from that stranger that I would get the remaining amount back by 30-Nov-07. But the pain that my friend, his mom and I have been through was tremendous.

That stranger is a 21 years old lower middle class person who is otherwise a good person, took his chance with this money. Bad luck though. This situation has cost him his job, his reputation and his credibility. I felt miserable about his situation.

Money is cruel and sadistic.