“Do you know any Loan Shark? I need some money.”

I was sitting in my vehicle while waiting for my wife outside a local bank in Sibu last Friday when a woman in her 20s approached me. “Mr., do you know where I can get some “tiger money?” she asked me in Foochow dialect.

I took a good look at her as it puzzled me that a stranger would approach me with that kind of question. I tried to figure out whether she is sane or was it the way I carry myself that she mistook me as a loan shark. She was quite the ordinary young housewife that you would meet in a supermarket and she did not look strange or scare at all.

I took out my reading glasses and asked her whether I heard it wrong. She told me that she needs some urgent money and thus she wants me to introduce her to the loan shark if I know any. I asked her whether she understands how the loan sharks work and how much interest they charge. She kept quite as I told her “to borrow the “tiger money” is like digging your own grave.” She asked me “how do you know?” I told her that she must have come across news about how the loan sharks works and how savage they can be.

I further probed why she needs the money and she told me that her husband gave the money for save keeping and that money was meant to be part of the handling fees for the purchase of a house. She was supposed to take out the money from the bank for the said purpose but the problem is she did not have sufficient in her bank account to draw out.

I told her to go back to her husband and tell him the truth. “He would be mad”, she said. I told her that if she wants to borrow from the loan shark, it would be better to face her husband now or there is no point for her husband to purchase the house anyway. I told her that her husband would appreciate it if she is to tell the truth instead of going down a path of no return.

She seemed lost and the asked me “can you lend me RM3000?” I told her that I would not as she has to solve it her own way and that is to go back to her family. I told her “you can’t dig a hole to cover up the other hole.”

Just then my wife came out from the bank and she said bye and thanks. I do not know the latter development of the young housewife but I hope she will follow the advice and I hope that she will not be the victim and prey of the “Tiger” or loan shark.

I guess there are many out there who are lost and face the similar circumstances like the character here. We can’t save them all from their own acts but we should have more forums to discuss the ills of the societies and we need more organizations to provide support to the poor victims.

David Wong
10-08-2008