I had a girl working for me years ago in Kaduna. H had a lot of male friends who were always gathering at my kiosk. The girl's numerous friends always came to patronize me. The friends of her friends also came to patronize me. My kiosk was more than a business hub; a Mecca of some sort.
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I was happy because my business was doing great. If I bought rolls of recharge cards, they would be exhausted before nightfall.
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One day, a woman who had a shop in the neighborhood surreptitiously summoned me.
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"Put an eye on that your girl. I think she is stealing from you." The woman said.
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I thanked her and left.
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That evening, I took all our books home and went through them but I found nothing incriminating.
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We were okay profit-wise. If there was fraud as the woman had alleged, my girl deserved to be applauded because there was no trace of it in the books.
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However, two things occupied my mind; the thought of making more money if I had a more trusted person on the saddle and the curiosity of a feline kitten. I wanted to catch her red handed.
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A week later, a young man came to see me. "Bros, sack that your girl." He fired emphatically. "She too dey follow boys."
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I told him the girl's personal life had got nothing to do with my business.
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"But na your name dey girl dey spoil na. People will be talking that na ashawo dey work for you."
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I thought about it but I refused to fire H.
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Then came the red handed day! A man came to buy glo recharge card of five hundred naira. She sold the card in my presence but when I looked in the books later, it was not captured in it.
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I was flabbergasted. So it was true! Judgement day had come finally.
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I confronted her the next day and discovered that she indeed faulted. However, she actually did not steal from me. She sold her own card.
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"You mean you bring your own recharge cards here to sell?" I thundered truculently. Then, I uttered the dreaded words; "You are fired!"
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Quietly, she left without putting a word of scorn against me.
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Someone introduced T to me; a humble girl whom everyone trusted. "She will not steal from you." I was told.
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Dry, cold and snaky; T was. All my customers left one by one. She was hostile. She was never going to cross the road like H and get change for customers. Better she didn't sell than for her to go about looking for change. All that she cared about was her salary. Some customers said she was rude.
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Soon, this disposition began to tell on the business negatively. My money was never missing but business became terrible for me. I was now borrowing to pay her.
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One day I rode past a street around my area and found H in a kiosk. She was now with another. There were lots of people around her and there was good life there.
Deep inside me, I wished I hadn't fired her but I could not say it for fear of being labeled a bad business man.
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Miserably, I hid my face and went back to my kiosk where I found T as usual dozing on the chair. I didn't need anyone to tell me that I'd failed. A week later, I sold everything and closed shop.
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These things happen all the time to us. A good business man will never fire a productive staff but the Adamic nature of man which makes him insatiable will always make him think lime was better than orange. And until he had tasted lime which he does not have, he would forever think orange was the worst among all the fruits.
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If this scenario plays out in my next life, who would you advise I hire; H or T?
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Please I didn't mention APC in this post o!
©Japheth Prosper

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let me book the space in case it make fp

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Hire H

H for sure