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Do Givers Really stay vacant?
People in the compound always said it like a law of life:
“Givers never lack or go vacant"
Ade never believed it.
He had watched his mother give and give until there was almost nothing left. She gave food to neighbors, money to relatives, help to strangers. Yet many nights, Ade went to bed hungry. If givers never lacked, why did their pot sometimes sit vacant
His friend Musa argued the opposite.
“You’re looking at it wrongly,” Musa would say. “Giving doesn’t mean you’ll be rich. It means you won’t be abandoned.”
Ade laughed bitterly. “Try paying school fees with that philosophy.”
One evening, Ade’s mother fell ill. The hospital demanded money before treatment. Ade ran through the compound asking for help, but doors closed gently, apologetically. Everyone had their own problems.
That night, Ade was ready to conclude that the saying was a lie.
Then something unexpected happened.
People began to arrive one by one.
The woman his mother used to cook for when she had no stove.
The man she once helped find work.
The widow she always shared food with, even when it was small.
No one brought everything.
But everyone brought something.
By morning, the bill was paid.
Ade sat outside the hospital, confused.
His mother hadn’t given because she expected repayment.
She hadn’t given because she was comfortable.
She had given even when it hurt.
That was when Ade understood the argument.
Givers may lack money.
They may lack comfort.
They may lack ease.
But they rarely lack help, people, or hope.
The saying doesn’t promise a soft life.
It promises a supported one.
And for the first time, Ade stopped arguing and started giving carefully, wisely, but willingly knowing now that lack doesn’t always mean vacancy, and giving doesn’t always mean loss.
