To trust or not to trust

Pramod Khandelwal, 24 years, boasts of having multiple businesses running at the same time. He never leaves a chance of showing off his assets, wealth to others. He is a self proclaimed poor guy who is a millionaire and more. The facts stand that he belonged to a lower middle class as most of us few years back (may be 8 years). He has four elder sisters and a single earning from his father which showed him bitterness of a middle class life. Apart from all this, he is a childhood friend of mine. We went to same school for a year, used to play cricket and other road side games for 7-8 years, after which I left the city for my college studies. This article is about Pramod and his business cunningness to cash our friendship for one lakh. Actually it is also about how people make bread and butter by posing a princely identity which is nothing but all hollow inside.

Whenever I was at my home in Jaipur, Pramod and I used to spend time while roaming around or going for dinner with other friends. He occasionally asked money from me for his business. Pramod's proposal was mostly giving some amount to him and take a little extra in return. I had been refusing him for an year or two. But when I was in Jaipur last time, he showed me his various businesses, took me to his business partners. The idea was to get me in confidence so that I can invest (or be a partner) in one of his businesses. He actually spend hours with me roaming around, boasting his business plans and finally giving me assurance that we are friends since ages and there is nothing that can go wrong. I finally melted and got curious to try him out. Since we needed to start with something to build up trust, he asked me some money (60,000) as loan which he will repay in 20 days with an interest of 5,000. He gave me all the assurances such as it his liability to return and he even gave me a postdated cheque of 65,000. Fine, I played with his rules, gave him the amount and bang! he called me on the right date and I got my money.

After few days 25th Jan, 2010 he asked me 75,000 (+ 25,000 in 2nd installment) to be returned on 25th Feb with an interest of 8,000. I have not received the amount yet, but what is interesting is how he toys with his tongue.

25th feb, Pramod: I have the money in another account and it will take 2 - 3 days if he transfers them to my account.

02nd Mar - 5th Mar: Everyday Pramod told the same thing that I will get my money tonight. Yesterday didnt happen for some or the other issue due to bank problem like transaction is taking lot of time. But his assurances were so fluid and smooth that I forced myself to believe that he was not lying and may be there was a genuine issue.

6th - 7th Mar: Pramod's grandmom died in Ajmer and he couldnt talk or follow up.

8th Mar: After I called him 5 times, he asked my bank account no and told that he had deposited in my account and it should get updated in no time. I called him at night that I don't receive any updates and he asked me to wait as it might take 1-2 days since transfer is across cities.

9th Mar: I called him in morning and told that I haven't received it yet and may be he should enquire in bank. In noon he told me that he is in bank and waiting for his token. It took him 2 hours to get his turn to talk to bank officer. There he came to know that yesterday he forgot to mention my bank account's branch address while depositing money and hence this branch didn't proceed it. It sounds fishy because account number has all the information and there is no such requirement. Still Pramod was able to convince me that he has completed formalities and money will be transferred today. He also told that the bank officer called him after some time and told that he has started the process of depositing money in my account. I didnt receive any money late night and I asked him the phone number of bank officer who called him up. Pramod very promptly gave me the number and I decided to call him next day early morning.

10th Mar: The bank officer's number never got connected. Even today it says "this no. is switched off" when I try dialing it. I got furious and asked Pramod if he has any proof that he deposited money. Pramod very promptly messaged me a receipt no. and told that he has deposited it and has this proof for the same. So nothing to worry! I knew there was a rule where you can't deposit more than 50,000 in a bank account. So Pramod told that he gave PAN card of his friend (kishenji) and after that he was able to deposit 82,000 as per norms. By evening, I got furious and arranged branch manager's phone no and enquired her about this issue. She told me that there is no entry for my account and first of all no one can submit more than 50,000 in cash in any bank. I asked Pramod what's happening. He told that he broke the amount in two halves and deposited them separately to overcome this issue. He also gave me the name of bank officer whom he talked a day before (Vinay Sharma). But as per branch manager no one with that name works in her branch! I tried reaching Pramod multiple times and he responded saying that he had killed one guy in road accident and is busy wrapping up the issue. He had to give 22,000 as bribe to come out from the mess.

11th Mar: I asked Pramod to reach branch and talk to manager and solve the issue with her. Pramod very diligently told he will reach at 10am sharp but that came only at 6.30 pm. He took manager's phone no from me and scheduled a meet at 6.30pm. At 8pm poor branch manager called me that my friend has kept her waiting for 2 hours. Pramod called her thrice telling her that he is about to reach her and is standing just outside bank. But he never came in. When I called Pramod he told that he is waiting outside bank for 1 hour and will go in as soon his friend who deposited money for him will come. But alas! that never happened.

12th Mar: It was all messy. Pramod told me that he will any how transfer money in account today w/o fail. In evening he told that he never got money from where he invested (and hence he never deposited any money in bank and never went to bank, it was all a bunch of lies with me and branch's manager). Even till 11.00pm he kept saying that he will anyhow give me my money today itself.

14th Mar: My younger brother who stays in my hometown (Jaipur), met Pramod and asked for money on my behalf. Pramod confidently gave him a cheque of 30,000 and asked him to apply in bank next day. Pramod then sent me sms for the same and I told Pramod that I will see if these cheques get clear or not. Pramod replied that he has ATM card and Charu can confirm how much balance is there in his account. He also told that multiple number of cheques of this amount can be cleared, he has so much money.

16th Mar: Cheques bounced due to insufficient amount in him bank account. I tried calling him, but he didn't pick the phone and after 5 mins his phone was switched off.

Conclusion:

It is a different matter if I get my money or not, but this sequence of fluent lies has really shown me a new dimension of communication. I think I am naive/fool to loan the money, but I will say I wanted to test if friends can bully you and 1 lakh is not a big price to pay for this lesson. While there is another side of coin where I can rely on my close friends, it is unfortunate to say that it is not easy to decide on whom to trust and on whom not to.

Disclaimers:

1 There is no disclaimer, there is no exaggeration in above story. If you want to verify, I have all the messages/sms that Pramod sent me and they describe it all. Feel free to drop me a mail for that : sanchitg AT gmail DOT com