Gandhian Principles Still Work As An Effective Debt Collection Technique!

by Subhranil Mondal
(Calgery, Canada)

I was the in-charge of the recovery cell of the the City-11 Branch of a certain bank during 1999. My challenge at that time was to recover dues from the mayor of the local governing body. He was a highly respectable person in the eyes of the common people. But character-wise, he was a very opportunistic type of a person and never hesitated to use his chair even in trifle matters of interests.

I applied different methods, starting from humble requests, to warning him of making this event public. But all in vain. I felt quite hopeless. I spoke about it to most of my friends. One of my friends from India mailed me a unique idea to recover dues from this man. His idea was like magic. What I could not accomplish for the last year and a half, his idea had done it for me within half a week.

What I did was one Monday morning I bought a very nice bouquet of roses and dressed it gorgeously in a basket. Finally, I took the letterhead from our bank and wrote nicely on it boldly: "Thank you very much for not repaying the debts of our bank. Just keep on doing the same. God has sent you this. God bless you." Then I placed it on the basket as it could come in sight of all.

And then 15 to 20 of our staff and I went to his office right at 11:00 that morning and presented it to him in front of all in a very prestigious manner and all of us congratulated him. Everyone in his office, including him, was flabbergasted. Before he could do or say anything we all moved out of his room. The next day we again did the same and informed him that we would be doing this facilitation until he took any step in this regard and this could have even meant him calling the police and having us arrested too.

Believe it or not, we had to go only the day after. Our debt was returned, with interest, on the fourth day by 10:00am. In his mail, my Indian friend had also informed me that this method was suggested by Mahatma (Nobel Heart) Gandhi, the great freedom fighter of India, to take revenge on a person without resorting to violence or abuse.