Last month, I received a call from a close friend in the group who wanted to borrow 10 million VND to make ends meet because he had not received his salary yet. I happily agreed to help him.
You promised to send it back after 2 weeks, I agreed and didn’t ask much about it. However, by the 3rd week, I still saw that you were “missing”. This friend didn’t even go out for coffee with the group on the weekend after borrowing money from me.
After a month of waiting, I felt that things were not going well so I called and texted, but my friend still had not responded and blamed me for "being a close friend but afraid that they will not pay". I unintentionally got a reputation as a selfish person, not knowing how to sympathize with friends when they are in difficult times.
But then I saw them posting pictures of traveling everywhere, even eating and partying in fancy, expensive places. I asked and found out that this friend thought I was financially stable so he was not interested in paying on time or even being able to pay whenever they wanted.
From my best friend's story, I really feel both uncomfortable and embarrassed. Every time I borrow money from someone, I always worry about it and try to find ways to pay it back, but I don't understand why there are still many people who take promises and paying back lightly like that?
I once heard someone talk about the “culture of borrowing money”: “If you lend someone 2 million VND and they pay it back on time, and then keep borrowing, then those 2 million VND are considered theirs because that is the value of the promise.”
If you keep your promise to me and pay on time, when you need the next installments, I will always be ready to lend because I have faith in them.
My friend may pay back the debt after a while.But in reality, our friendship has unintentionally had a crack that is difficult to mend.
