A Wasted Samaritan Act

The image on this blog is a typical scene at Araneta Center Bus Terminal in Cubao, Quezon City during this summer season. I took the photo using my cellphone when we sent off some relatives who will go home to their province in the Visayas early this month. With such a crowd, you could imagine the difficulties that travelers have to go through not only in getting their seats but also in having their baggages loaded in the bus that will take them home.

While waiting for the bus that our relatives will board, I chance upon a woman making a scene in the terminal. She was demanding for the 100% refund of her ticket from the conductor of the bus that she was supposed to ride to a Bicol province. The bus conductor was willing to give her only 70% of the amount in her ticket which is the standard practice for such a refund. After some angry words from the woman passenger and the conductor’s challenge that she brings up the case to the police desk nearby, she just took the 70% refund and left with her two supposed young children in tow.

A male passenger who was there earlier than us told me the whole story behind the commotion. A descent middle-age lady had earlier accompanied the woman and the two children. She bought her the PhP500-ticket and waited for a while to see them off. It was during the waiting that the lady told the male passenger that the woman and the children stayed in her house overnight. She gave them foods and bought the ticket so they could go back home to the woman’s province.

The lady did not stay long enough to see the bus of the beneficiaries of her kind act take-off from the terminal because she needs to go to work. She did not see that when she left the bus terminal, the woman together with her supposed children immediately stepped-out of the bus, demanded the refund of the ticket and the incident I cited above ensued. Why do you think did the woman do that? Was it a simple change of mind on her part not to proceed to go home to their province?

My dirty mind says that what happened was a modus operandi of the woman. It is a way of living for her to take advantage of the kindness of the lady who fed them and went out of her way to help them. This story only shows that there really are wasted Samaritan acts by unknowing kind-hearted people in our midst. Be always careful in caring for others. You could be the next victim of the woman using the young children to carry on her sinful trade.