r/thane • u/PeppermintPleasure • 2h ago
General Lent Money to Habib Kothmire, a Shopkeeper in Kolshet Village, Thane West, Out of Goodwill, now He Won't Return My Money
I first started staying in Thane after the Covid lockdowns. Our company still had a WFH policy, and I had come to help my sister who was pursuing her MD degree while having to manage two young kids. During this time, I started buying chicken/mutton from Habib Kothmire, a butcher whose shop is located about 50 meters to the right of Lodha Amara towards Kolshet Village.
After a while, I found the price of Rs. 700/kg for mutton too high for regular consumption. So, we negotiated a discount of Rs.50/kg for an upfront Rs. 13,000 payment. So, I would be able to buy mutton for a price of Rs.650/kg instead of the regular price while having to keep logs of the purchases.
Two weeks later, he pressured me emotionally into giving him money, claiming that he needed it to buy goats or his shop would close. So, I decided to lend money to him out of goodwill. However, this started a debt cycle because Habib never returned the money and kept borrowing more money (or he would blackmail me). I could never consume so much mutton especially while having to travel back-and-forth from Thane to my hometown and then to my job in Bangalore. And, I eventually had to move to Bangalore for work. I now come intermittently to Thane for short periods of time hoping to recover my money and it’s now the third year.
I want to now list his side of the argument:
- Disputes ever borrowing money from me: As shown from the UPI transactions, he started borrowing money just two weeks after making the Rs. 13,000 payment. Nobody ever spends Rs. 70,000 in advance.
- I’ve consumed the entire amount buying mutton from him: He was supposed to return money in exchange for the money I lent him. Because he had leverage over me, he pressurized me to continue buying mutton from him and also paying him further money. I started keeping logs checking them off after every Rs. 10,000. He currently owes me Rs. 48, 480. However, he claims he needs the entire log from the very first transaction but that’s what a shopkeeper should do. He has no logs or a billing system at his shop.
I’ve spoken to people who have worked for him, and they, too, were subjected to a similar toxic cycle. They were overworked, treated poorly and went months without being paid, leaving them with little choice but to stay, keep their heads down, continue working, and hope that their long-overdue wages would finally be paid so they could leave their jobs. He’s never had a long term employee, everybody leaves as soon as they get out of the cycle.
I have always been a hardworking guy, never had any vices (alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs), actively helped others, and never went on trips, bought anything for myself, or splurged in general. And, I got taken advantage by a man that never bothered to learn to read/write (he’s illiterate), smokes cigarettes all day, behaves badly and still somehow owns two shops and a 3BHK. My kindness was exploited and mistaken for weakness.
It’s sad that I’ve been alone with this issue the entire time. Nobody’s ever helped me and just told me it was my mistake for lending money. This has been a valuable learning experience for me, and I hope it serves as a cautionary lesson for younger folks who are just starting their first jobs and trying to apply the moral values they learned in school to real life.
