“Neither a borrower nor a lender be.” These famous words came from Polonius, Shakespeare’s chief counselor to King Claudius in Hamlet. As Polonius gives some fatherly advice to his son Laertes, Shakespeare gives some timeless advice to us: Do not lend money to friends.
Why shouldn’t we lend money to friends and family?
You loaned your friend K 4,000/= last year BUT since then he has refused to pay back, which has really deteriorated the friendship. You beg him to just pay you K 2,000/= and forget the rest because you are in a financial crisis.
Your friend then says he can only get you K 1,500/= since that’s all he has.
You feel like you have no option but to accept. You give him your account details to send the amount directly to your bank.
You wake up the next morning, check your account and there is K 15,000/= in it.
You keep staring at the screen in disbelief but it is indeed k15
You grab your phone and find 53 missed calls from him and an additional 27 text messages begging you to transfer back K 13,500/= since he only meant to send K 1,500/= and accidentally added an extra “0.”
As a Christian, what are you supposed to do?
1. Send back K13,500/=?
2. Take your full k 4,000/=?
3. Keep the entire K 15,000/=?
What is your Christian, answer.