A Strange Experience

I declined to deal with the men. But when Dad insisted that I talk with them, I bravely stepped out of our mansion and found two men next to the verandah. One of the men was familiar to me because he regularly comes to connect our home to water supply. The other was a stranger.
After we exchanged greetings, the familiar man launched into a talk about how we had been receiving water by mistake. To avoid disconnection, he informed me that we had to give them money, just as Dad had told me.
Although I maintained eye contact as he talked to me, I didn't prod him into giving me more details. I just agreed with what he was saying. We soon paid them KSh 3,700.
A few minutes later, I had a feeling that we had been conned. Dad also thought so. That pained me so much that I was unable to concentrate on what I was doing on my desk.
Well, I have never been that money-minded but I have always hated it when someone has swindled me out of my money, even as little as KSh 5. I just don't like being conned.
What pained me even more is my failure to stand up to the two men. I thought it was I, not Dad, who should have questioned them because I am in my prime while Dad is over 70.
Parting with KSh 3,700 really pained me, considering that money is not coming easily to us at the moment. I told Dad that the men just ran out of money and came home to get it from us in a wily way.
As I discussed the issue further with Dad, I suggested to him that we should have asked for the phone number of the water company's offices to show them we had the brains to think.
Then realizing that the man who regularly comes to connect our home to water supply does us the world of good, I asked Dad if there was a way we could have refused to give them money without offending them. He replied that we should have bargained to hand them less cash.
I had an intuition that if we had failed to give them money, they would have made us suffer by deliberately disconnecting our home from water supply. We therefore probably saved ourselves some trouble. But still, parting with KSh 3,700 pained me.
The following day, I was still smarting from that experience which I thought was a con game. So when I went for my morning walk and met the man who regularly comes to connect our home to water supply, I felt compelled to ask him whether the money we had given them was a scam.
He proceeded to explain politely and in detail how Dad owes a lot of money to the company that supplies us with water and that they did us a favor by demanding less. His polite tone of voice soothed me.
Now I am at peace, even though I still think the men pocketed our money instead of depositing it in the bank account of their employer which is the company that supplies us with water. That's all I am saying.
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RECOMMENDATION: If you've enjoyed the above story on a strange experience I had, you might also enjoy another one on "A Terrible Experience" which I wrote a few years ago. Just click on that link in blue to dive straight into the story.
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