Martin Tersoo Ishu @MartinIshu - Twitter Profile

A lady came to my shop one day and begged me to allow her sit down while she waited for someone. I agreed and continued pressing my phone. A few minutes later, my neighbor suddenly asked her, “Aunty, who you dey video?” She ignored him. That was when I looked up and noticed she was secretly recording a man nearby. I asked her why she was filming the man, but she still refused to answer. My neighbor quickly informed the man that he was being recorded. Here’s what really happened… The man was supplying tomato paste cartons at a cheaper price. The same lady also sold that brand, but hers was almost ₦500 higher per carton. Because of the cheaper price, people were rushing to buy from the man some buying 10, 20, even 50 cartons at once. Even some market women she usually supplied started calling her, complaining that her own price was too high and asking her to come carry her goods. Out of anger, she came to secretly record the man and send the video to the company whose vehicle he was using. Apparently, the tomato paste company and the vehicle company were different, and according to their policy, he wasn’t supposed to use that vehicle for the delivery. People around them quickly figured out what had happened and began pleading with her to drop the matter. One person even warned that the report could cost the man his job. Not long after, the company called him. Rather than argue or beg, he calmly responded that there was no need for anyone to plead on his behalf, he would report himself at the office the following day. Then he revealed something shocking:He was actually the person helping the lady access the goods in the first place because she wasn’t financially capable of buying directly from the company yet. Unknown to him, she had quietly been adding nearly ₦500 extra on every carton she sold while still relying on him for supply. The moment he started selling at cheaper prices, she became upset because it was ruining the profit she had been making from the same market. In the end, the company heard his explanation, allowed him to keep the vehicle, and told him to continue his work. But the lady?She ended up losing access to the tomato paste supply entirely because the same man she reported was the one helping her business survive. Sometimes, greed destroys opportunities wisdom could have preserved. See less