A short story...

Before I dive into the story, I'd like to show off my amazing sponsors. Do check them out. They write awesome articles.:-)

**********††††††***************

Adams and Abdul are apprentices who learn how to make aluminium roofings, furniture, doors and windows. One day, their master got a huge four-storey building contract which means more work, more money! and since Adams and Abdul seem to have progressed in the work despite being apprentices, the master took them with him.

On getting to the site, the work was more than Adams expected(being older and more experienced he would do more work than Abdul). He knew that the work was much but he hadn't anticipated it to be anything like this. They set to work immediately and after continuous cutting, drilling, screwing and fixing that seemed to last forever, they were finally able to complete only half of the work on that day. The Master handed them the key to the workshop and some money for feeding and transport back home.

On their way home (before they got to the bus-stop to board a tricycle), they heard a man behind them calling to them in a high-pitched voice. Abdul was the first to turn around to see who it was and they discovered a short scrawny young man, around 24, with dirty clothes and an unkempt hair. He looked like someone who last had a shave when he was born, that being his hair and armpit. The beard looked dirty and tangled. In short he looked like a desperate junkie.

The man kept calling to them until they stopped, staggered towards them and faced Abdul, "bro it seems like I know you somewhere before. Do you visit Bata(a market) often?" Abdul didn't say anything, nor did he give him a nod of affirmation. The man then said"okay,it seems I mistaked you identity then". "I happened to purchase a phone from Bata market and intend selling it but I don't want to go to Bata now ", bringing out a new Infinix Hot 9 phone, he continued "It's not like I am in dire need of money,I just need some weed money". He was a junkie after all.

. Abdul didn't show any interest on his face as what kept ringing in his head was "this dude stole this phone! This dude stole this phone". The desperation and cunning in his eyes was enough to tell. Just as he was lost in this train of thought, Adams who had always had eyes for fancy phones chipped in,"so how much do want to sell it?". The scrawny looking guy's attention immediately diverted to Adams"I bought it for $100, but I can sell it to you for $80". Adams and Abdul glanced at Abdul, as if asking him what he thinks of the deal with his eyes. Abdul's eyes was expressionless so Adams went on,"I don't have such money", bringing out the money givigj to them by their master "... but I have $7 and a spark 2 phone on me. Do we have a deal?"

Adams also saw the desperation in the guy's eyes and concluded same thing as Abdul, that's why he proposed such a ridiculous deal. He thought the phone was stolen, so he might as well gain something from a stolen item.

"How about handing over your spark 2 and $10?",says the guy. Adams said he has only $7 with him but the guy insisted for it to be $10. After much dragging and bargaining, Adams gave him and said "okay wait for me here. You give me the Infinix Hot 9 and I give you my phone with the $7 while I go get your $3 balance for you".

"But we can go together",says the guy. "No, I have to go to my master to get the money and if he sees you around, he wouldn't give it to me".

The guy agrees and hands him the phone after collecting his phone with the $7. Abdul however was busy looking on all these while until Adams whispered to him,"so buddy, what do you think?". Abdul said he shouldn't let it dazzle him that the phone was stolen. Adams confirmed that he knew that that's why he was making the deal. It was an opportunity to good to miss!

The scrawny -looking guy interrupted their Convo and said to Adams,"I am waiting for you buddy,you better hurry. I am doing this because you seem like a person I can trust. So be fast about it please. Go get that balance. But first.." he said bringing out a black nylon bag from his pocket, "put the phone in here, It would be suspicious for passers-by to see us like this".

"Hmmm...this guy really stole this phone".. thought Adams. If he was honest enough he wouldn't have brought out that nylon bag.

Adams put the phone in the nylon bag. Walking away while Abdul trotted behind him. The twist was that the story made up by Adams about going to collect money wasn't true. He hadn't intended to return. After covering some distance. He turned to Abdul,"Is he gone? Can you stylishly look behind us to see if he's gone?". Abdul did and reported that he didn't see anyone. Adams walked some more.

After taking a turn into a street, he turned around and saw no one was following him. He was happy that he finally shook the dude off his tail. With a smile on his face, he opened the nylon bag and to his utter dismay, he saw a plastic shaped in the exact way the phone he put inside looked like!!!

They both stood dumbfounded for about five minutes, looking at each other with horror in their eyes! They simply couldn't believed what has just happened. The guy used a magic charm on them.

There's this type of charm known as rufa Ido(translated literally as "closing eyes") in the northern part of Nigeria. It is used to put you into an illusion and make you see things that aren't really there. It wasn't an Infinix hot 9 phone right from the beginning but a plastic that was shaped to look like a phone. The nylon the guy put the phone in was meant to dissillusion them after he had gone far away. It worked perfectly! So Adams had his phone and the $7 they were supposed to feed and port with all gone! What made it seem unbelievable was that he examined the "phone" on his own. He logged into some apps and God! He even took a selfie with Abdul!

Unbelievable right....? Hahaha.

Well this is actually a true life story that happened yesterday. Adams lived close to my neighborhood and infact..I even took the photo of the "phone".

There you go....

A plastic it is!

Rufa ido is used by tricksters and scammers, but Adams and Abdul had no idea what they were up against.

Here is a question;

If you were a judge and you know what Adams intention was(which was to cheat before realizing he met his father in cheating), what would be your verdict?

Indeed, the grass cutter caught the hunter in Adams case.

Thanks for reading . I hope you enjoyed it.

To all my sponsors, upvoters,commenters and viewers here's a big ❤️ for you. I am very thankful.

Yours Layly,

As always, feel free to comment your thoughts.

Lead Image: from unsplash.com

Image in article taken by me.