The Tricks of Swindlers

Being deceived is not worthy of a man's honor and standing. For a man is, first of all, a person who has brought together discernment, intellect and wisdom. Only a person whose discernment and intellect are deficient and who lacks wisdom is doomed to be deceived. Being deceived is not called misfortune, it is called foolishness. However pure-hearted a person may be, let him be aware that liars and frauds, schemers and swindlers exist.

Satan does not come to a person with rudeness, but with sweet words. To catch its prey, the crocodile looks like a log.

Who is a swindler? He is a scoundrel who has planned to take someone else's money by any trick whatsoever, and to fill his belly, clothe himself and feed his children with that money. A robber takes by force, a schemer takes by cunning. Both the swindler and the robber do this with a precise plan. Everyone who has money is prey for them.

Swindlers first choose their prey. If the swindler belongs to the petty sort, they target people who are educated, simple-hearted and hardworking, and at the same time gullible, somewhat timid and weak. If they have achieved great results in the art of fraud, won fame and glory and climbed to lofty heights, they cast their net to dupe big moneybags, or even to milk them on a regular basis.

The gullible are also of two kinds: the gullible one with little money, hardworking and simple, and the gullible one who has become “rich” thanks to the money his father earned. The father took blows from life's various hammers and was tempered by them, but the son grew up in comfort with everything ready for him, so he is neither a fighter, nor resolute, nor discerning – it is these gullible ones who are caught in traps most of all. The father did the work – he built a large company, and the son becomes its owner merely because he is a rich man's son; at every step there are a thousand crafty swindlers who want to lead such a gullible one by the nose and twist him around their finger. At the market, too, such swindlers are countless – selling you rotten tomatoes and short-weighting you on every kilo you ask for!

Now let us examine the tricks of swindlers.

The first step is to gain trust. For this they work in “poor and kind” mode. He himself is sick, his child is sick, his family is in a very difficult situation, but at the same time he is so very pure, devout, soft-hearted – my, my, a real saint! In short, he presents himself in the guise of an angel. As a result, he wins the trust of the gullible one.

The second step – he asks for small loans. For example, a hundred thousand. He says he will return it at such-and-such a time, and at that time he brings it back. With that he goes about as if he were a man who never borrows. Then he suddenly appears and now takes two hundred. In this way he borrows little by little, but each time the amount of the loan grows. He justifies his need to borrow so well that a doctoral candidate defending a dissertation surely could not justify his work so thoroughly.

The third stage – after long research, the swindler finds out your financial capacity and asks you for a loan of exactly that amount. He asks in such a way that the day of repayment, even some kind of profit, the grounds for repaying the loan – everything has been calculated clearly and plainly. You do not even realize how you gave him the money. And with that the swindler flies off without a flap of his wings and vanishes. You will not find him again. That's all. But strategic swindlers keep sucking on the moneybags constantly. This kind is a very sly fox.

There is one such swindler; he probably lives in Kyrgyzstan, in Osh. The son-in-law of Muqim Mahmud, who fled to Europe – to Sweden or somewhere, probably in 2004 – and obtained citizenship there. Muqim aka himself turned away from him long ago. This fellow's name is Rahimjon Ali. In the summer of 2021 he came and told me, “My wife is dying, lend me money.” Out of gullibility, I got ten thousand US dollars from Rustamjon domla for him. He has been gone ever since. Somehow, with pressure, 2–3 thousand of it was recovered. But he has eaten up and digested the rest. And yet that money was orphans' money; Rustamjon domla was engaged in caring for orphans at that time.

In short, there are a great many shameless people like rahimjon ali. I sent someone to his house, to Osh. Those who went and came back said: it turns out he is a pauper with nothing at all. It turns out he goes about deceiving people in such ways and eating up their money.

The conclusion of the matter is this: an honorable person does not speak of being in need, and does not reveal his pain to an enemy or a stranger. Exposing one's trouble and asking for help is, in fact, contrary to manliness and nobility.

It is no surprise if a beggar who makes himself look pitiful turns out to be, at the very least, a lying swindler.

If you wish to give charity, seek out the truly needy yourself and give to them. But do not end up joining the ranks of the gullible.

Akrom MALIK