Agege Bread Sellers

And so it was, one evening many years ago, I purchased a decent loaf of bread at the popular Oshodi Bus stop in Lagos Nigeria.  The price must have been N5. I gave the seller who was seated close to her goods a new N50 note which was the highest currency denomination at that time. By the way, the N50 note was issued in 1991 and remained the highest denomination of the Naira till 1999 when the N100 note was introduced. This episode happened soon after the release of the new currency.

As I was saying, I gave the vendor N50, collected the loaf and was expecting N45 change. The lady promptly put her hands into her money bag made of a long clothing usually tied to the waist and presented N15 to me! I told her politely that the correct change was N45 and not N15 but she insisted that I gave her just N20 and therefore the change due to me was N15. I suggested to her that if she looked in her bag, she would see the N50 which was not really common at that time. She calmly turned down my suggestion.

I decided not to cause a scene but told her that I will not collect the N15 from her. I decided to keep the bread with which I have a date the following morning. I felt cheated but walked slowed away to board a bus that will take me home.

As we were waiting for the bus to fill up, I heard an elderly lady that looked every inch an Alhaja call out loudly pointing to the bread seller who had just fleeced me and to my bus: You Agege bread sellers of this place, be warned! If anything happens to you, this woman is the cause! She has just defrauded a man in that bus of his money!

Speedily, the lady in question offered to return my change in full as the other passengers urged me to get down from the bus to collect my money.

I did. Happily.