" Good afternoon oh " " Good afternoon sir " The bank teller collected the withdrawal ticket he stretched forth towards her and checked the application needed to verify if he was indeed the one . Verifying that , she went ahead to attempt to debit his ticket but it bounced back because his account didn ' t have the amount he requested . " Are you expecting cash ?" she asked . That was a stylish way of telling him he didn ' t have the cash in account . He nodded in the affirmative . She felt sorry for him not because of his balance because that was something she saw happen everyday , she only felt sorry because he looked like he really needed the cash . The smiling expression on his face turned straight as soon as she broke the news .
Few days later , he came again with the same ticket . She didn ' t bother verifying his signature and photograph as she was still yet to get over the other day ' s event . " Ekaasan sir " she greeted him in yoruba trying to be more friendly , he answered with a wide smile . " Did the person later send it ?” she asked . " Beeni " he said . Relieved , she went ahead to attempt to debit again and it bounced back . " It seems the person hasn ' t sent it oh ", she informed him like the last time . He was braver this time as the smile slowly disappeared rather than disappearing suddenly . He left again , without his cash . She wished she had the cash because she wasn ' t happy with how he left disappointed . Unfortunately for her , she had no cash too otherwise she would have just given him and pretended as if the person had paid . That was her thought and plan in the event that he came again another day and the same thing happened .
He went to her again some weeks later which was exactly a week after her pay day . He didn ' t first go to her probably out of shame . He queued in front of her colleague and as soon as she noticed him standing there . She greeted him and beckoned on him to come to her . She checked his account history this time and saw that there had been no inflow in a while . She asked again , " Are you expecting cash ?" " Has he not sent it ?" he replied with his expression saying " no , not again ". " He has " she replied and paid him the N1400 he wrote on the same ticket he presented
Empathy goes a long way in our relationship with others . You can ’ t really help people until you truly understand how they feel by putting yourself in their shoes ..