The Wolf

The brother came into his DM like 
a thief in the night
The brother said he needed some help
Things were tight and love was scarce
The brother said he was a Christian 
brother
The brother played the Jesus card
He told the brother to send his bank 
account details
The brother said 
he would prefer that they meet
Silver and gold can come later
Can you please meet with me?
He told the Brother when and where
He sent the brother transport fare
They met and talked like brothers
The brother was quite smart
What he got when he was leaving
was ten times what he 
would have gotten had they not met
The brother became a regular visitor
to his office
They would sit and talk about life 
and the gospel
The brother's situation was quite 
pathetic
No job, no money, nothing to show 
for his almost forty years of existence
He said he once had a job 
and even bought a car
But when the wind and the waves 
came, he sold all he could to keep 
body and soul together
After about three months after 
meeting the brother
His younger sister came to the office 
to see him
She was a software engineer working 
with a blue-chip company abroad 
Just as he was seeing his sister off
The brother arrived with a friend
The brother said he had a visitor from 
out of state and wanted to ensure that 
his visitor met his new friend in Christ
He knew what the brother wanted to do
Yet, he smiled and said hello and 
shook hands with 
the friend from out of state
Then he went on to introduce his 
sister to the two visitors
His sister smiled and everybody got 
talking
She said she was into IT and the 
brother said "Oh, I studied computer s
cience too"
Wow
The entire chat was for about five 
minutes
His sister left 
As soon as his sister was gone 
the brother called him aside 
and said "I don't have anything at 
home to entertain my guest. he came 
all the way from the north. 
That's why i stylishly dragged him here. 
Please help us in whatever way you can.
It was exactly what he suspected the 
brother came to do
The brother had become a leech
Instead of getting a job and living his 
life to the best of his potential, he had 
become one of those people who live 
off the magnanimity of others
One of those people whose sob stories 
never end
He didn't complain
He took the 
brother and his friend to an eatery 
and bought them lunch
After lunch, he transferred some money 
into the brother's account
The brother and his friend later 
departed in a Uber he paid for
For at least one day every week, the 
brother would come to say hello and 
return home with 
money and other provisions that 
would last him for the week
At a point, the brother came to him
 and said he took in an entire family 
that were ejected in his neighborhood 
and would need to feed them
That was when he said No
He told the brother it is good to be 
benevolent but not 
when you are begging
You cannot take in a friend or a 
family of six and expect me to pay 
for their welfare
I have my own responsibilities
I am a married man with children
I have a car loan and other loans 
to service
It was the first time in over a year 
of their meeting that he 
turned the brother down
The brother took the no badly
"Is it because of my current situation 
that you are talking to me like that? 
Because I asked you for help? 
Do you think you are God? 
How much did i ask you to give me? 
What right do you have to question 
what the Holy Spirit told me to do?
I told you people were ejected from 
their home
Should i leave them to sleep on the 
street?
Where is your milk of human kindness?
Where is your empathy?
If I have a job, do you think i will 
come here?
Do you think i like being treated like 
a rabid dog?
God has been 
very unfair to me
He has placed me at the mercy of 
those who are determined to frustrate 
my destiny and put my glory to shame..."
He couldn't believe the bile and the 
gall in the brother's voice
A stranger who didn't know the true 
situation of things would actually 
think he was a 
wicked person.
He told himself the emotional blackmail 
thing has to stop
The friendship was one-sided
He as getting absolutely nothing out of 
it while the blackmailer got everything
He steeled his heart and refused to 
part with a penny
Eventually, after much ado, his friend 
left 
After that day the brother stopped 
the weekly visit
He felt guilty after some weeks and 
tried calling the brother
He realized the brother had blocked 
him on all the communication platforms
He didn't know their fight was that 
venomous
The discovery left him feeling terrible
It was 
shocking that he became the enemy 
of this "stranger" after having fed and 
clothed him for a year
Does he not have the right to say no?
He told himself to be more careful with 
stray cats next time and forgot about it
Two days later, the brother resurfaced 
at his office
This time 
the brother was well dressed and was 
flaunting a car key
The brother said he came to say 
Thank you and share testimonies of 
God's faithfulness
The brother took him to the brand new 
car he drove down to his office
The brother told him God sent someone 
from abroad to him a few days 
after they had the disagreement and 
the person had been taking good 
care of him
He thanked God for the brother
They had a hearty meal together 
and even took pictures
Three weeks later, his mother sent 
him a voice note that he should 
reach out immediately
He called his mother
His  mother told him it was about
 her younger sister
He asked her mother what was wrong
His mother said the young man she 
was dating had swindled her and 
broken off the engagement
He told his mother he didn't know 
his sister was in a relationship
His mother shook her head in disbelief 
His mother took out her phone 
and showed him pictures
It was his picture and that of the 
brother taken three weeks before
His mother said the brother was 
his sister's boyfriend
What!
He had no idea the two of them 
were acquainted
He placed a call to his sister
His sister said the 
brother searched for her on Facebook 
and leveraged on his friendship with 
her brother to chat her up
They became friends and all until 
they started talking about a relationship
She said he came up with the idea of 
opening outlets for selling phones 
in Nigeria
She works in the technology industry 
and can pull some strings to get 
products down to the brother at home
She said the brother drew up the plan 
and said he needed fifteen million 
Naira to get a space and furnish it 
in one of the malls
She sent him the money
He got the space and told her to send 
the goods
At that point, she developed cold feet 
and told him she couldn't go on unless 
her family members were aware of 
what she was doing
The goods she was buying would cost 
her almost a hundred thousand dollars
She had already sent the brother forty 
thousand dollars for space 
She said the next thing she saw was 
their picture
The one he took with the brother when 
he came to his office three weeks 
before then
The brother told her he had gone to 
discuss their relationship with him and 
they had agreed that they needed a 
year for the business to be 
well established before picking a date 
for the introduction and marriage
She said she was happy with the 
progress and went ahead to send 
the goods
The goods got to Nigeria two days 
before that day and the brother 
promptly broke up with her and 
blocked her across all the platforms 
He told his sister he had no idea 
anything that huge was going on
His sister had always been a secretive 
person who doesn't want people in 
her business
That was the weakness the brother 
capitalized upon
He told his sister all was not lost
He called a few friends
He was linked wit 
the anti-fraud unit arm of the police
That evening, the brother was 
picked up at the local airport in 
Abuja
He had purchased a ticket to travel 
to Ghana and would have possibly 
found his way to Europe from Ghana.
He had sold all the goods his sister 
sent to a businessman for 
seventy thousand dollars and didn't 
really rent a space in a mall.
The bulk of the money meant to get 
a space in the mall were still with him
In all, his sister lost about
 twenty-thousand dollars
They were able to recover the rest
As for the brother, he was still in 
jail as the case was still being heard
The judge set his bail at five million 
Naira but he had nobody to post bail 
for him
Not one friend or relative
He would have withdrawn the case 
and settle it out of court but he felt it 
would be ungodly to let such a 
criminal loose in the society 

PS: I have heard many say they cannot
be business with anybody who calls
himself a pastor or a Christian because
of their negative experiences with
religious folks
Discernment is key
There is no greater entity to do business
with than the people of God
We just must beware of the wolves in
sheep clothing