Sunday 28 / June / 2026
For some people returning a favor is like paying for a debt. Personally speaking, I have no quarrel about it. However, in some occasions it can be very offending. Doing someone a good turn is an act of kindness but we don’t always see that way.
Scratch my back and I will scratch yours, that what is today. My cousin told me he would drive me to the airport if I agreed to fix his computer. I would have fixed his machine anyway without him doing me a favour. I guess Good Samaritans are becoming rare species. In a very materialistic world, time is money and you don’t invest it without putting anything in the cash till. Not very far away from where I live, a man slashed the throat of his younger brother because he did not pay back his money. When my car broke down, a close friend gladly offered to give me a lift if I filled up his tank. When I protested, he said, “you got to pay for the service.”
That’s another expression I treat with great caution these days. “Paying for the service” is fast becoming a dreaded phase, whoever the beneficiary is. A leading communication company asked me if I could provide them with some write-up to help with their public relation campaign. I accepted the terms of payment but I was puzzled when a company’s official asked me for a “service fee.”
With no trace of shame on his face, he asked for a cut of the money they would pay me. He explained very clearly that “it was normal to return the favour in business for a service we pay.”
It was explicitly corruption and I told him so. His answer was very simple. He got up, stretched his hand and said,” do we have a deal?”
I did not need to think over it. I shook his hand and said goodbye but I was not going to pay a service fee of that description. I passed up a decent income but at least I slept with a clear conscious that night and for many nights after that. A month later, some unscrupulous journalist got the business “favour” after paying the business “service fee.” Disguising dodgy acts with ethical words is a cover up fancied by many these days. Those who would argue that nothing comes free these days than they better draw a line somewhere. Not everything has a monetary value. I know it is very tempting now because there are occasions you cannot get anything without slipping something under the counter. Doing a favor is not complimentary anymore because many would want something in return.
It is slowly creeping in our own households, too. The other day, I asked my son to get me something from the shop. He agreed but asked me,” what do I get from it?”
I gave him a piece of my mind and I hoped he now understands that he should not expect anything in return when he has a chance of doing a good deed. Yes, father and son relationship may never mean the same the way it was when we were growing up. Opportunities these days don’t just turn up. You have to flash money to divert them to your direction.
No wonder we begin to see the unemployment situation rising when company bosses expect something before hiring. Personal relationship, on the other hand, cannot blossom if favours are not returned. I talked to my wife about it and she said,” I cook and you wash.” That’s fine because favours between spouses is the only healthy gesture remaining that you can trust.
