Everyone Needs a Kick Now and Then

My husband had been telling me to keep a closer watch on the day-to-day processes of the company but I had this habit of assuming things were OK.  

I was horrified one day, when our old carpenter-painter Tamil came to me complaining that his bill had not been paid for three months. I was shocked because I believed in paying people immediately. I checked with the accounts department who told me that the three bills had been paid in three months.  

“Three times?” I asked, “but I don’t think we ordered that many pieces.”

I looked at the bills and they definitely look like to me like Tamil’s. In those days many of our suppliers gave us handwritten bills on a sheet of paper. There were no systems at their end so we accepted those bills.  

He looked at them, and confirmed it was his.  

“The person in your office said they lost the bill, so I gave it to them again and again.”

“Hmm,” I said, “but you’ve been paid three times.”

“No, ma’am. I’ve received nothing.”  

I was puzzled. Tamil had been working with me for years. He was not someone to cheat me. But then surely, the person in the office was not either. And that is when I went down the rabbit hole to try to figure out what had happened. It was a whodunnit mystery of epic proportions, which uncovered stealing and cheating by one of my colleagues in the office.  

The way it had been done spoke of the skill of a master criminal. She would merely tell some of our suppliers who didn’t have printed bills, that the bill was lost, get a duplicate bill from them, pass it to accounts, and collect payment. Since many of our suppliers were small and were paid in cash, all she had to do was pocket the cash.  

In a similar manner, she would get bills for painting some of our pieces and collect money for it without actually getting the painting done! Many customers didn’t know that some of these pieces were usually painted.  

The more I dug, the more I discovered. It frightened me to see how far and how deep it went. Luckily, everything pointed to just one individual. We confronted her the next day. I was horrified at what she’d done, angry, cheated, upset. No one should be allowed to get away with something like this. I don’t know to this day whether I was manipulated or not, but that evening she left a note on her table threatening to commit suicide if, we proceeded further. I backed down.  

She never came back to the office, but I had the proverbial kick in the pants.  

My granny used to tell me the story about this little goat who wanted to visit his grandmother one evening. His mother was reluctant to let him go because there was a tiger prowling around and she was afraid that he would get her little goat.  

Finally, she had a bright idea. Granny’s house was downhill from where she lived. So, she put her little goat into the into a barrel and told him. I will kick this barrel a little way if it comes to a stop, just ask someone else to kick it further and you should go all the way down to granny’s home.  

So, the little goat began this unusual journey locked in a barrel, singing as he went.  

Roll, roll, little barrel,  

With a kick, you can roll little barrel,

Give me a kick and I will roll,

Give me a kick and I will roll,

I will go rolling, rolling, rolling home.  

And in this manner, the little goat reached his granny’s house safely.  

This is another one of the iconic stories my grandmother used to tell. My husband had been talking about it, and I had been cheated. I had all the kicks I needed to get my act together.  

I spent days after that, putting systems in place, many which we use till today.  I investigated every possible loophole, thinking like a cheat to ensure that checks and balances were in place. It was an unfortunate event, it should not have happened, but then like the little goat in the barrel, perhaps we all need a little kick now and then!