I got cheated few weeks ago when all I wanted to do was to help.
They were standing by the road side just around the corner of the junction to my housing area, it was around a hot day and they were sweating while waving their hand try go get help. Few cars passed by them without even stopping to offer any kind of help. Although the couple are total strangers to me, I've decided to stop and see if I could offer any help. They claimed they were on business trip, and their friend was at oversea, they are stranded and didn't know what to do. They asked for some money to get by the night, I offered some money to them.
When I got back, I sat myself down, thinking at what happened, I suddenly felt that I was being cheated, I told my wife and we decided to call the police. About half an hour later, the police called back, saying that their patrol car was there to investigate, but the couple fled when they saw the police patrol car.
There you go, I was being cheated. How much??? Around 100 over ringgit.
100 over ringgit can feed myself for over a week, but that wasn't the main issue here. The notion that I was being cheated because I wanted to help, really make me sick.
It keeps me thinking, is it worthy to offer help when you are at risk of being cheated. While there are genuine cases that really need help, the risk of being cheated of personal possession and even lead to kidnap cases that might be life threatening, is too high.
If you asked me if I will offer help to people asking for help few weeks ago, I would say a definite no. But think over it, and I've realized that if there were a day when I needed help, I would really much loved a helping hand. Yes, I will still do what I would normally do, to offer help whenever I think I should and I could, but I'll be more aware of the situation.
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