Lesson

a lesson learnt through the betrayal of trusted friend
(written as a personal retrospection after being betrayed by the friend to whom a complete trust was bestowed)

Lord Buddha has rightly said " An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind". Pema had trusted Mr Tenzing, a friend of him who had been known for more than a decade's time (to be precise since his seventh standard in 1999 through undergraduate days in college till 2010). But to his utter dismay Pema has never known him in reality. He was blind in believing him to be a sincere, honest and trust worthy person which in reality is not. Dzongkha saying བློ་གཏད་པའི་མིའི་ཧིང་བརྐུ།། ཧིང་བརྐུ་བའི་མིའི་ཨརཝ་བརྐུ།།  has a deep meaning in it.  It was on 11.08.2010, a night prior to     his departure for studies that he handed over two envelopes to Mr Tenzin in which Nu. 1500/- and Nu. 1000/- respectively were put in along with the letters scribbled, which were to be handed to Mr. Dorji who was leaving  for Kanglung. Pema would have handed over the same himself but since he couldn't meet Mr. Dorji personally due to time constraints it was handed over to Mr. Tenzing who promised that he would do the honour. But in reality he never did what he promised. He instead took advantage of the trust and confidence Pema had in him. The letters addressed to Pema's cousin(who is a student) and one of his college was never delivered. Breaching the trust placed upon him Mr Tenzing torn off the envelopes and used the amount for his own good. If he has the courtesy of an honest and a good human being, he should have sought the permission or the least he could have done is at-least informed him. Its makes Pema to wonder what kind of leaders would he be if he were one, if he is that greedy after such a small amount. Pema is sure Mr Tenzing would sell of the whole nation to quench his greedy thirst given the chance. The worst is that Mr Tenzing never told Pema that he used the amount until his enquiry upon getting emails from his cousin and colleague in September and October 2010 respectively saying they didn't receive his letters and the amount.

The shocking reply Mr Tenzing gave was that he used the amount because of urgency as he was flat broke owing to the fact that he bought a plot in Phuntsholing worth Nu. 3 Lakhs. What kind of right  he had to tear off the envelopes and use the money when he bought the plot? Won't he considered thief since the parcel was never delivered? Nevertheless, he never said that he would not pay the amount back. He promised umpteen times to Pema that he would pay it at the earliest which is not paid even today. At one time last year, in October Mr Tenzing even asked him the contact numbers of his cousin and his colleague stating that he has sent the amount to them through his to-be wife's account (in her ATM) and later lied again that ATM in Kanglung was defunct. Then he said he used the amount again since he visited his village. Thereafter, he kept on pouring out his fake promises that he would pay at the earliest which was never done. The latest of the very many lies he lied was on 16.11.2011 in which he said that he would deposit the amount in Pema's account on 21.11.2011 but it was yet another lip service. On that day, he mentioned that he was out of station while some of their other friends met him in Thimphu on 20.11. Now Pema has learnt that for Mr Tenzing, tomorrows will be there as always and he can never confide him anymore now as there is a saying in Dzongkha  as follows: 

ཤིང་ལ་ལན་ཅིག་སྦྲུལ་་གནས་དེར།།                 

ཕྱི་ཀྱང་མཐོང་ཚེ་འཇིགས་པ་ལྟར།།              

བརྐུ་དང་རྫུན་ལ་ཅིག་ལ་བཞུགས་པའི།།                   

མི་དེར་བརྟགས་ཏུ་དོགས་པ་བསྐྱེད།།

Whatever may be, Pema doesn't have ill feelings towards him rather regrets for his own idiocy to have complete trust on him. Yet he is grateful that he learnt a lesson not to trust a friend like Mr Tenzing who is like a bee with honey on its wings and a sting on its tail. Pema's only wish is may he be reformed so that like him other friends of Tenzing are not betrayed through his flatters and deceitful friendliness.


To Mr Tenzing and few others the amount may seem too trivial. But the question is  Mr Tenzing has used the amount through unfair means by shattering the trust. Moreover, to a student how trivial the amount may be, it matters a lot. Like wise, the value of the money never remains the same. It's value gets depreciated due to the escalation of the prices of the commodities as the production cost arises. Hence, a bucks in hand is worth two in the far far unseen future.