Image is mine
People exhibit different kinds of attitudes with respect to borrowing money. Some would do all within their power to make sure they pay back any borrowed money timely. I have loaned money to some friends and they are good at paying back at the agreed time or even before. In the case of any delay, they keep communication channels open and under proper usage to let you know why changes to the initial agreement are happening.
I have also experienced loaning money to notorious defaulters. When the due date has passed and they fail to pay, they take it as a disturbance if you ask them for your money.
What I can deduce as the major difference between these two groups is integrity. If one believes that he has a name and integrity to protect, he would always behave like the former group.
Personally, if I borrow money from someone, my mind won't be settled until I pay back the money. In one particular case when I relocated from one town to another and became stranded, I had to borrow money from a friend and when it was time for me to pay back as agreed, I wasn't having the money. I made sure I communicated the delay to him and pleaded with him to give a little more time. Shortly after then, I raised the money and paid him.
I have one weakness that has been dealing with me for a long time. I easily trust people's words. In a sane situation, this is not supposed to be a weakness but in my own case, it has proven to be due to how people I trusted had abused the trust.
One of such instances was when I was in the University and was broke. I had paid my school fees and accomodation fees and was left without the means to pay course registration fees and other charges. This was in addition to pocket money to run the semester. I had lost my father who was the breadwinner to the family a few months before then and I exhausted what my mother and sister could raise for me on school fees and accomodation.
A friend of mine was in a more critical situation than I was. He hadn't been able to pay school fees and accomodation and the university had set a closing date which was fast approaching. In order to help ourselves, we decided to visit a construction site to work for a few days before lectures resumed fully.
We spent a week working on the site and each of us realized a reasonable amount but it wasn't enough to help us offset our bills.
The deadline for the payment of school fees was just about four days away. My friend asked me to loan him my own proceeds from the work. I didn't want to oblige initially but after reflecting on our individual situations, I was convinced that his own situation was more critical than mine. For me to have paid the fees and secure my accomodation, I was a step ahead of him that may lose a session or withdraw from the University if he failed to pay his fees before the deadline.
I had 20000 naira with me and he was in need of 15000 naira to complete his money to make the payment. I gave him 15000 naira and he assured me that his father would send him the fees a week later with which he would pay me back and I believed.
It was a great surprise to me when he informed me three days later that he had secured accomodation in a hostel in another campus of the university after initially agreeing that we were going to get our individual rooms in the same hostel.
A week later, he couldn't pay me my money. I asked him and he said that I should give him one more week. A week turned to two and then three and as I had suspected at a point, he packed to his new accomodation without my knowledge. If I called him, he would reject my call and if I called with another number, once he heard my voice, he would end the call.
I suffered for the money to the point of nearly shedding tears before I could scale through the difficult time.
After some months, he came to me begging for forgiveness but I wasn't ready to utter a word. I have decided to let go of the money. I forgave him and told him to leave the money when he made an attempt to pay me 5000 naira in the first installment according to him but I vowed never to have anything to do with him again that involves loaning him money.