Some businessmen cannot be respected

It was Agong's birthday when I had problems with Maybank's cheque deposit machine. Each time, the cheque was rejected. Then came this Indian newspaper vendor who made a mistake of not clearing before putting in the cheque! Must be new to him because he should have made a few steps before doing that. So he got a receipt with my wife's account details showing a scanned image of the cheque he deposited. How often do we encounter a situation like that? Very very seldom but on top of that, this guy did not write his name as payee on the cheque given him by a businessman!

Three years ago, on Agong's birthday, we took a trip to Kota Bharu using the new road via Pos Slim to Cameron Highlands and Gua Musang for the first time, and I tripped and fell in KB, got a nasty gash on my forehead requiring 7 stitches. That's why I have this fear of something unusual happening on this public holiday.

Anyway, back to my topic. Met this man a few times and he grumbled that the businessman said he will have to wait until next month for a replacement cheque, giving the impression that his company is so strict on cheque issuance that if you missed it this month, you will have to wait another month for it! I told him that this man is being dishonest. Then he told me that he is being owed a few months' bills (providing lorry transport) at any one time. He said that once, upon completion of a project, all the creditors were paid only 35% and the balance of 65% had to be considered written off! This is quite similar to those who got the main contract from the government and delayed and refused payments to sub-contractors. How can we ever respect such people even if they display their wealth in the form of palatial homes and luxurious cars?

A small time renovation contractor complained about some house owners who would delay payment and kept asking them to do extra works off the record. They had to do them for free simply because the balance of the contracted sum has yet to be paid! To counter this problem, some contractors would jack up the price and ready to write off the last 5% as expected. But over some time, who is a gentleman and who is not, the local people would get to know... unless reputation and integrity are not something they worry about and can still sleep soundly.