Non Performing Personal Loans and Other Pains

In lots of countries, when you live in the city, you will run into poor people who will ask you for a loan.
Being a good person who wants to help local people, you will probably be happy to oblige. And, most probably, the following pattern will repeat itself over and over again with surprising regularity:
1) They ask you for money, a certain amount which is normally above what they need. To elaborate- they really need $10, but they will ask you for $20. What’s it to you? You have a lot of money. Your country is so rich!
2) You loan them $20. They are very grateful and tell you that they will pay the money back as soon as they can.
3) In a couple of days they are back, and you are happy to see them. Aren’t they back because they want to repay the money? Nope. They are back to borrow even ’ more’ money. “What??? Wait a minute! You still have not paid me back. Pay me back!”
4) They get angry! “Is that how you are? You do not want to help poor people? “
“But I have helped you already! Where is my money? Pay me back! “
“I have no money, I need more money”.
“Sorry, I am not going to lend you any more money because you have not returned the first loan. Plus why should I now extend a revolving credit line to you? I am not a bank.”
“You stingy, mean, heartless bastard! I will never talk to you again”. They slam the door and leave you holding the bag.
Your money is gone, your “ friend” is gone, and you are being accused of being stingy into the bargain. After you have helped them out? The nerve of those people!
So you have learned your lesson. Loan money and make an enemy (and lose your money). How about next time I just give it away? So you do. They ask you for money and you smilingly give them the amount. And you keep your friend. Well, then he unashamedly comes back and asks for more money, and tells other people that you are kind and you like to help the poor. Soon more people come to you or contact you and ask you for charity. They obviously don’t know the meaning of the word “enough”.
Why is this happening? Well, because you are mostly dealing with people who are only one or two generations removed from being peasants or worse, peasants themselves. To these, most of their values revolve around land (which is usually free and clear, not taxed and is inherited from the ancestors) and other such agricultural concepts- a fishpond, a rice field, a chicken farm, etc. Money is something that is secondary to these agrarian things, and is naturally produced by selling them the way cow produces milk. People in a village would gladly share milk with you, but not cows since the latter is a producer while the former is the product. A product costs little compared to how much a producer would cost.
Similarly to that, money is somewhat of a trivial, mobile commodity that is naturally generated every time you market agricultural commodities, it and does not have the same almost sacred meaning that it has to people who come from the urban background and who have no land to fall back upon.
Many of such rural people, lost in the city jungle of many a Third World nation are happy to meet a kind foreign soul like you because their own urban folks will neither lend nor give them anything at all. But foreigners are kind, aren’t they?
Yes, foreigners are naively kind. Because they expect those peasants to honor their financial obligations the way a Western urbanite would, but the rice or potato farmers were not trained to do it, and have no such concepts. Even if the foreigner comes from a rural background, he is still very mindful of the value of money because in his country, he is heavily taxed and usually has a mortgage to pay.
Slick and corrupt urban dwellers of many a Third World capital will rob you by cheating you in business or by forcing you to pay bribes; while its poorer classes will rob you by endlessly asking you for “loans” ( and grants) that will never be repaid. In both cases you end up getting screwed and without too many friends to depend on.
Actually, after having lived in such blood sucking countries for a while one starts missing home. Yes, people were not too friendly or helpful there, but they usually returned personal loans, did not ask for grants and were more or less honest when it came to business. Yes, indeed, there is something to be said about all those “unfriendly” countries that we leave behind to become a miserable owner of non-performing loans in the smiling Third World lands.