Trusting Wrongly Or A Genuine Mistake?

I don't know which is best, not trusting people at all or trusting people by default and hoping for the best? I've tried both and they've had their days when I came to regret them. As of now, my strategy is to trust you but still expect you to misuse that trust eventually. When you do come around to doing that, I don't feel so hurt or surprised. Since I came back from my industrial training and attachment, I have not had a chance to go for fieldwork. For the first time since then, I visited a fish farm today for work purposes and it was evident that I've lost my touch slightly because I kind of let my guard down. My Nigerian people will say 'I loose guard'🤣.

I had to wake up by 5:30 AM today, so I can make it to the farm in time as the sale of the fish was scheduled for no later than 7:00 AM. I got to the house of @Kushyzee, as he was supposed to go with me, only to find his lazy ass was still in bed. We eventually got to the farm, but to our dismay, the buyer hadn't arrived. We waited patiently and when the buyer finally came, we got to work. It took around four hours to conclude the whole thing, not necessarily because it should have taken that long, but because the buyer and seller were are loggerheads, with the seller accusing the buyer of cheating. It was an unfortunate and unnecessary accusation as the buyer was being very honest, and the accusation made the whole atmosphere tense, with us having to recount a bowl of fish multiple times just to satisfy each party.

We somehow managed the situation until we finished selling and still had to go help a neighbour who had few sell hers as well. The work was made long and unpleasant by the tense atmosphere and cloud of suspicion, but the most intriguing part was yet to come. These kinds of jobs are usually arranged for me by one of my bosses, he even negotiates the pay himself. So, I usually just finish and collect what I'm given knowing that's what he's arranged with the people using my services.

In that same spirit, we finished and collected what we were given. This case was even more peculiar because I just some part of the negotiations between my boss and the seller who I worked for. So, when she gave me what was to be our pay, I was heavily dissatisfied, cos it was the worst and cheapest job I've ever done, because of what I was being paid.

I was displeased but took it and left. I and @Kushyzee shared the money accordingly. I went to his place to rest a bit before I head out to the next farm I had scheduled and while resting, I slept off, only to wake up about four hours later. A few minutes after waking up, I got a call from my boss. He was asking me why I hadn't sent his cut over.

During the conversation, the pay came up, and that's when I got to know I was paid less than 50% of what I should have been paid. I was livid. I wanted to just bounce back to the woman's place and give her small trouble, but my boss said he was going to call her and make her choose between paying me completely or losing our services forever.

She claims it was a misunderstanding of what she heard from my boss. My boss made a point of blaming me for the whole fiasco, as he's never given me a job with that much low pay. It was even lower than the flat rate. He said I ought to have checked with him when I wasn't satisfied with it. I owned my mistake and apologized. The woman has requested my account number, but up till now, I'm yet to get the expected alert. But the question I've been asking myself is, did she intentionally try to dupe me or it was an honest mistake? How did I fall for something like that anyway?

The reason I didn't bother to check in with my boss is that I probably trust her, as this is not our first time doing business. But it's also that trust that almost if it hasn't already, as I'm not so sure she will complete the payment, cost me more than half of the fruit of my labour today; more like our labour.

I trusted her and I don't know if it's turned out I trusted the wrong person, but I guess that's to be seen. But the woman does seem like a reasonable and honest person, but again it wouldn't be the first time I'm wrong about a person's character. Even amongst those, I call friends, I've been wrong sometimes.

Closing Thoughts

While it's yet to be seen, I'd like to think I wasn't exactly wrong about her and all this is just an honest mistake. But I doubt I'll ever give anyone this much leverage/freehand. I hope she sends the remaining part of my payment, as that's what can be called my profit. What she's brought so far barely covers my transportation and feeding during the job. What she's holding is the actual reward for my efforts. We will see how it plays out. I would like to hear your opinion on the matter. Do you think she deliberately tried to cheat me??

I just got in now and I thought to just type and post my article first as I'm really tired and won't do it if I don't do it now. So, you guys will have to forgive me for not interacting this evening, even though I've done quite enough during the day. I'll make it up to you tomorrow, hopefully.

Thanks for reading..