Eighty-Five Thousand Francs: Reading about Moral Values in the Community

1Before you read

1. Have you, or someone you know, ever received money or change by mistake? What was done?
2. Is it dishonest to keep money that someone sent you by mistake, if you did nothing to get it? Give a reason.
3. Which three values do you think matter most in your community? Write them down and compare after reading.

2Reading: The Wrong Number

A short story written by Ganzaa. The characters are imagined.

1 On Saturdays Mugisha minded his aunt's fruit stall at the market, and on Saturdays the market belonged to him: the shouting of the porters, the smell of ripe mangoes, the regulars who paid by phone and never counted their change. He was seventeen, in S5, and saving for a second-hand laptop. He had 31,000 francs. He needed 120,000.

2 At half past ten the stall's phone buzzed. You have received 85,000 RWF. Below it was a note from the sender: Fees Term 2, Uwase S3. Mugisha read it three times. His aunt had sold nothing for that amount; nobody had bought anything at all for the past hour.

3 Kalisa, who sold shoes at the next stall and missed nothing, leaned over his shoulder. "Somebody has made your day," he said, grinning. "Wrong number, eh? Well, the money came to you. That's the sender's problem, not yours." He tapped the screen. "Eighty-five thousand. You could buy your computer next month."

4 For a few minutes Mugisha almost believed him. He imagined the laptop, the assignments he could type, his classmates' faces. Then he looked again at the note. Fees Term 2, Uwase S3. Somewhere, he thought, a girl called Uwase was going to arrive at school on Monday and be sent home. He remembered the term his own fees had been late, and the long walk back from school with his bag, and how his mother had cried in the kitchen when she thought no one could hear.

5 He called the number. A woman answered on the first ring, already in tears. She had been trying to send the fees to the school's account and had typed one digit wrongly; she had been calling the network all morning. When Mugisha read her the amount and the note, she was silent for so long that he thought the line had dropped. "You are sending it back?" she said at last. "All of it?" He sent it back while she was still on the line.

6 The following Saturday a woman and a girl in a school uniform came to the stall. The mother pressed a 5,000-franc note into Mugisha's hand. He gave it back, politely but firmly. "Then we will buy your mangoes," she said, "all week." She bought two kilos, and her daughter shook his hand as if he were a grown man.

7 Kalisa watched all this without a word. That evening, as they were closing their stalls, he said gruffly, "You did right." Then, after a moment: "Last year I kept a thousand francs a customer overpaid me. I still see her in the market. She still greets me." He pulled down his shutter. "It is a heavy thing, a thousand francs."

3Comprehension

Questions 1 to 5 ask what the story says; 6 to 8 ask what it means; 9 asks what you think.

1. How much more money did Mugisha need for the laptop?
2. How did Mugisha know that the money was not a payment for fruit?
3. What argument did Kalisa use to persuade Mugisha to keep the money?
4. How had the mistake happened?
5. What did the mother do when Mugisha refused her 5,000-franc note?
6. Which memory changes Mugisha's mind in paragraph 4, and why is it so powerful?
7. What does Kalisa mean by "It is a heavy thing, a thousand francs"?
8. Why does the writer give the exact figures 31,000 and 120,000 in paragraph 1?
9. Was Mugisha right to refuse the reward? Give reasons for your view.

Show answersHide answers

1. 120,000 − 31,000 = 89,000 Frw.
2. The note said "Fees Term 2, Uwase S3", and nobody had bought anything for the past hour, certainly nothing worth 85,000 francs.
3. That the money came to Mugisha by the sender's mistake, so it was the sender's problem, and that he could buy his laptop with it.
4. The mother typed one digit of the school's account number wrongly.
5. She said she would buy his mangoes all week, and bought two kilos.
6. The memory of being sent home when his own fees were late, and of his mother crying. It is powerful because it lets him feel what Uwase and her mother will feel: empathy turns an abstract rule into a real person's pain.
7. The small sum he kept has weighed on his conscience for a year: every time he sees the customer, who still greets him, he feels guilty. The "weight" is moral, not physical.
8. They show how much the money would help him (it almost covers the gap of 89,000), so the temptation is real and his choice costs him something.
9. Model: Yes. Accepting money for returning what was never his would turn honesty into a business deal, and the family had just struggled to pay fees. (Accept a reasoned "no": a small gift given freely can be accepted with thanks.)

4Values in action

5Vocabulary in context

6Speaking and writing

1. Debate in pairs (6 minutes). One partner argues Kalisa's case ("The money came to you; it is the sender's problem"), the other Mugisha's. Then swap. Which arguments were hardest to answer?
2. Write (150–200 words). Describe a situation in your community in which someone's honesty or integrity was tested. Name the value at stake, describe the choice and its consequences, and end with what the situation teaches.