A few Sundays ago, I forgot my phone in the back seat of an Uber on the way to church. I didn't notice until a few minutes into the service. I panicked because of the thought of buying a new phone, and the data on it. I told my wife, then stepped out of the church to call the driver. He was a bit gruff but agreed to come back if I pay for his fuel for coming back to the church because he had already gone some distance.

He said he didn't know it was there on the backseat or he would have called my attention to it. I said I didn't call him a thief, and that it was my fault for being careless. I was just thankful someone didn't get a ride with him because not everyone will tell the driver they found items in the back. They will just take my phone.

When he mentioned the fuel, I agreed. What is buying extra fuel compared with the loss of my phone? Am I buying 100,000 naira worth of fuel? He came back with it after about ten to fifteen minutes, and I met him at a building adjacent to the church.

As I thanked him and took it, he remarked that the security guard who was watching the place (the man was standing right by us and watching the entire exchange) tried to stop him from parking.
He explained that he wasn't staying there, and just wanted to return a forgotten phone. The guy then legit asked him why he was doing it. That he should have taken my phone and just gone.

This is not fiction.

The security guard wasn't even denying it.

Someone heard that a person was honest in returning my property, rebuked them for it, and suggested that the "good Samaritan" still goes away with my phone.

The driver said, "I am not a thief. And anyway, is it his phone that will solve my problems in this life?"

I paid for his fuel with a little something extra then he left. But not before telling me that the security guard was even asking him "to drop something" for parking near the building, which he refused.

Theivery and extortion are brothers...

~Onuora Onianwa