Why I Stopped Helping People

One peaceful weekend afternoon, my cousin Albert came to my house unexpectedly. He told me that he had to talk to my fiancé and me about something very important, and that he was desperate and didn’t know what else to do.

When we sat down, he explained that he had lost his job a few months earlier and was already out of money. He didn’t know how he would feed his children and had no idea what would happen to them.

However, he didn’t just ask us for money; he explained that he had a plan to recover, a small “business” he had come up with after talking to his friends from the neighborhood.

He was going to start tattooing people at his house, and all he needed was a bed and a machine (another friend of his gave him the lights and supplies to get started).

My fiancé and I thought it was an excellent idea. We were very fond of my cousin because he was always looking out for our family and our mothers, and he was the kind of person who, if you needed someone for anything, would be there. He even helped us with our last move without asking for anything in return, and we saw this as an opportunity to return the favor.