The Case of the Mystery Zartech Bail Out Hero!

So today I made a brief stop at Zartech, dealers in all kinds of frozen food;importers, exporters of poultry, beef, fish and ...chicken (lol)products( in my eastern Nigerian voice). Just kidding. I don't know if they have become international exporters but I do wish them well. 
I picked up a few things: Smoked chicken for a gourmet smoked chicken sauce we are fond of at home and chicken wings and drumsticks. When I got to the counter, the amiable woman smiled at me and weighed my purchases and it amounted to

₦3, 440.00. I whipped out my card to pay and I was told, "Sorry, the POS isn't working" boing!

Have you noticed in our cashless society, POS machines don't always work? We need to do something about that in this country. I sha have a sneaky feeling that sometimes the machines work but those selling deliberately shut it down just so you can use an atm machine and pay with cash. Why? Because I hear the charges on each transaction can be "astronomical". I should look into that and get back to you. But I digress.

Crestfallen, I was reminded by the nice lady that there's a Fortis MFB atm machine close to the office (I don't know whether to call Zartech a shop or an office; forgive). I tell her it never works and she said it would today. Well, I went there and guess what? There was no cash! Ok, UBA was just across the road so I checked that out as well. I slot in my card, punched in my pin number and the amount I wanted to withdraw and..."Unable to dispense cash" it flashed or one of the many disappointing languages of the atm machine.

So I went back to Zartech and I asked what time they closed shop and they said 5.30pm. I was like, I must take this smoked chicken home o so they must wait if I have to go to some other atm machine and pay. I waited a bit and wondered if I should just transfer the money to their account but I knew I probably would have an issue with the internet network; I began to imagine that some of the guys that kept throwing glances or stares or looks my way would just offer to pay my bill- I tell you, I would have graciously accepted and then I would pay them back when we got outside. But trust some of our guys na; those that asked what the matter was disappeared outside, sharp sharp. na to toast, drink ice cream only abi? It is well. Alright, so I step out of the building again and walk past a man who was at the counter sometime back. I did not even say hello as I usually would do. As I walked towards the Zartech gate, he called me back and asked me what the problem was. I narrated it summarily to him and made to move on. He asked how much it was. I told him about
₦3, 000.00.
He said, "And you just have to have that smoked chicken, right?"
"Oh yes, I need it. I promised my sister I would get it"

 As I got to the gate entrance, he pulled out three one thousand naira notes and gave it to me. "Quickly, go and pay before they close"

Are you kidding me? I wasn't sure so he repeated himself again. I said alright, took it, went inside, dropped the drumsticks from my cart which reduced my bill to about
₦2, 840.00 and paid with the money given to me by the gentleman.

I went back to him; he was on the phone but cut short his call to attend to me. I told him we could go to an atm machine or I could go and I would return to give him his money.

He shrugged and said I shouldn’t worry; that it seemed like I needed what was on my to-do list ticked off and on to the next. Well, he got that right. I'm usually wary of people who do you small favours and start asking for dates etc. But this gentleman was nice and said he just did it. I should have a wonderful day and hopefully we would meet again. I didn't ask his name;he didn't ask mine. Mysssteerrrrryyyyyyy...

Well, good things do happen. I gave away the Chicken wings to someone and I'm grateful I did not pay for it.  One of the guys that was looking at me like juicy well fried goat meat was waiting for me by his car. (Maybe it’s his boss’) as he said, “Hello beautiful. Have you sorted it out now?”, you should have seen the dirty look I gave him. I’m sure it was so dirty, even his necked had to recoil back a bit. I will sha prepare me a sumptuous smoked chicken meal and perhaps, just perhaps, I might share the recipe with you.

Thanks to my mystery Zartech bail out hero!