Small coin

For many people, Tet is synonymous with “nightmare”. My friend is one of those people.

Working as an account manager for an advertising company, these days, after meeting the sales targets, the real battle breaks out: The debt collection of unsettled contracts. His boss bluntly declared: "By all means, you must get the money back to the company before Tet, even if you use the most despicable excuses." Our group had a good laugh when he sent a screenshot of the boss's instructions to the group chat and asked us for some advice. Obviously, he didn't choose to send any of them to the customer. I especially liked this one: "Dear sister, my company's toilet is broken so I hope you pay before Tet so we can fix it soon. Or, can you let my company's employees come over to use your company's toilet?". I guess this reason is not despicable enough.

But when my friend sent us the customer's reply email, we felt ashamed. Here's the original text: "Dear, I'm very sad to inform you that my company's financial situation is on the road to exhaustion. My company cannot pay you before Tet. Please understand, I wish you a happy Tet!". Who would dare to ask for money after reading such a pitiful and despicable email? Even if they asked, they wouldn't be able to get anything, which means my friend couldn't get his money back and was the loser in this battle to see who was more shameless.

After laughing with each other, someone in the group said something that made everyone think: “So you see, when it comes to money, people are willing to throw their dignity aside.” I wondered if I were in the position of my friend - the one asking for money or the customer - the one being asked for money, would I be able to say such vile words like them or would I insist on keeping my dignity? I was not sure. Suddenly, I found the above story no longer funny. I felt sad for my friend, for the customer and felt lucky that I myself did not fall into a similar situation.

Are people the masters of money or is money the masters of people? Even rich people facing this question will surely have to think before giving an answer. Do they own material things or do material things own them? Although the two are similar on the outside, their inner nature is completely different. Only we ourselves know the difference best.

Money is always something difficult to talk about, difficult to argue, difficult to judge, difficult to grasp. Sometimes it is good and sometimes it is bad. Sometimes people want more money, sometimes they hate it. Sometimes it brings joy, sometimes it brings unhappiness. Or maybe, the fault is not in money, but in how we perceive and use it.

A girl I know brags that she is working part-time at a movie theater. The first money she has earned herself after 20 years of living under the protection of her parents. Yesterday, I stopped by to see how she was doing, and out of a craving, I bought a box of popcorn for 80,000 VND and ate it all in 15 minutes. She looked at me and said, “You just ate up my 4 hours of standing there checking tickets.” I shrugged and replied, “And I just grew up a little bit.”