I Lend Money To my Best Friend, The Worst Mistake Of My Life.

If you see a common or popular saying or advice on the internet that you have no experience with yet, don’t doubt it’s authenticity. There are many advise on the internet, but “don’t borrow money that you cannot afford to lose to a friend” is not one of them. I saw this advice several times but I refused to heed to it. The wise people in my tribe have a common saying that “truth is like buttocks, even if you refuse to agree with it you cannot refuse to sit on it” that was what happened to me. I refused to believe that if you borrow money to your friend, you cannot get the money back until they blow trumpet. I later sat on it and cried.

image designed with Canva by me.

During March last year, a dear friend of mine sent a message on WhatsApp requesting 1,200 Ghana cedis ($100). This bastard even gathered audacity to tell that he needed the money urgently. Money that is not your own, how can you need it urgently? Unless you’re mad. Because I look very well outside but not so well inside, I didn’t even wait to think about what he needed the money for. I just sensed the grief in the voice notes he sent and my stupid heart fell for it.

I gathered the money immediately, from my various small accounts and sent it to this bastard. It was too days later the my sense which seemed to had been on a vocation when I was doing all that nonsense, started resuming work, that I started to realize that the money had I sent to this guy is not a money I should even spend on my own self. This money was a sacred money. Money that I’m supposed to use and rent nine months later.

In his voice notes, he mentioned that he’ll repay the money back immediately he gets home the following day. A week after sending the money, I didn’t hear from this bastard. I called him, he reassured me that I’ll get my money back later that day. Night came, I refreshed my accounts, no alerts. I became angry at once, called his number billion times but neither did this bastard answer my calls nor returned the missed calls. I wanted to cry out of anger.

The following day, he called and was saying plenty rubbish things about how he had issues with his bank. Even sent some rubbish screenshots of failed transactions. I knew he was lying and that got me furious even more.
Slowly it started dawning on me, my friend had no intentions to pay my money back anytime soon. He lied the first time he was asking for the loan and he has been lying about it afterwards. I was stupid for sending him that money.

My rent expired three months ago. Prior to that I called this guy and begged him with all the energy that I had. I lowered my voice to spoke gently to him. I tried to make him understand that the money was for my rent and I wouldn’t have any other option again than to pack out he he doesn’t pay me back my money. This guy looked me directly in my eyes and lied to me again. I almost cried.

Mind you, this friend of mine is not a friend of today. We have been friends since secondary school (7 years ago). We sat on the same desk, lived in the same house, went to the same university, studied the same program and lived in the same hostel. We have been through everything together. I never saw the bastard part of him during all those years.
It was only after I had lend money to him that he started showing me how a stranger he is.

He has ghosted me completely. After buying into all the special unprovoked lies he has been throwing in my face, I decided to delete his contact and all his social. I haven’t seen or heard from him after my rent issues.

We were good friends until I lend him money. The only reason I loaned him the money was because he was my friend. The reason why he has refused to repay the money he borrowed effortlessly is because a friend was stupid enough to lend him money that he too doesn’t have.

At first I was mad at myself for not thinking it through before lending him the money. But now, I feel like that’s the best way to get rid of wicked people in your life that you call friends. I feel like there’s is a long way to go and we certainly can not ride with some people if we dare to go far.
Friends should be able to support each other financially. Even though to some point lending the money to him was irresponsible, he should have realized the importance of our relationship.