The benefit of the doubt

In a world of chaos, sometimes we have the tendency to distrust other people. But what happens when there are situations of doubts for the people that you think that they are honest and trustworthy?

I’ve been experiencing a couple of disappointing weeks and the reason is that many people did not seem to to responsibilities for their actions, either it is often due to negligence, stupidity and ignorance.

I had this occasion that one of my tenants who lived in the serviced apartment building where I serve as the residential manager. As easy as it gets, most tenants who stayed in this building are very pleasant to have. They are politically polite or at least, to be responsible to make their payment on-time. But with this client, the doubt came to me when I don’t see his transaction listed in our monthly report. Then I decided to look through the case and crazy enough for me to see, I couldn’t even find a single proof of payment from him for a long period. By a long period I meant 4-5 months.

My reaction? I was very upset.

Why? Because he seemed to be a polite and decent young man and RICH. He drives an BMW and owns multiple businesses. I did like him as a person.

My thoughts? I didn’t know what to think. While I spent time to analyze the case, it let the thoughts go back and eat me slowly. I have come to decided not to trust in what I see or even what I hear and focus on the actions instead. Unfortunately, based on the information that I collected, there was nothing good coming out of it. My brain decided to distrust him and distrust those who appear to be part of the noble society. I was almost up to the point that I would be willing to kick him out of the building.

My action? I texted him to request for an in-person meeting, just to hear him out and see what he’s got to say.

On the meeting day, he as usual, came to see me in a very nice manner. He discussed a couple of changes on the contract and went straight to explain money issue. He said he wasn’t sure if he had transferred the money why I was so sure that the money did not reach us. We agreed that he should go back and check on his past transactions then report back to me for the amount that he owes. I was still very upset.

A day went by, he texted me at 3am in the morning and sent me the proofs of his past transactions that I never got to see from the first place. What surprised me was, the payment was actually made on time, he did not even miss the payment (Why the hell didn’t he tell me that he had mad all his past payments and this could be a mistake that we didn’t receive so I wouldn’t have to stress myself out?). But the problem is, he sent to the wrong person and that is why we received no money in the end.

My final thoughts? I must say this is a relief, for thing that has been eating me for days to think that some people around me are just full of crap and I let things happened under my watch. But learning the truth made me realized that it is necessary to give people the benefit of the doubt when you don’t know yet the full story.

It’s the month of April, and there’s a fun fact that I found. If the beginning of the month 01st April is called April Fool then the last day of the month 30th April is known as the Honest Day, perhaps it is to compensate for all the lies that we make. Well, who knows that honesty is the best policy of all?