My friend Angela lost a thousand bucks a couple of nights ago. She had two thousand-peso bills kept in her wallet, but while we were paying in Starbucks earlier that evening, she only found a thousand inside. She said she said her wallet never left her bag (or her possession for that matter) while she was in school. She used that particular wallet only once during the day, and was sure that she never used that missing thousand-peso bill to pay because she liked keeping her money buo instead of barya. She also folded both bills together, so it was quite impossible for just one bill to have accidentally fallen off or something like that.

But twice during that day she went back to her apartment, and she left her wallet on the coffee table in their sala (she’s quite, um, sabog that way. Peace tayo, Angie!). It was only logical to assume that it was stolen while she was at home. The culprit probably took just one bill so that Angela wouldn’t notice immediately.

You could only imagine how pissed off she was. I tried to comfort her, reasoning that at least it was a gift from her uncle, and not her allowance from her parents. But I knew it was a weak argument. Besides, for her it wasn’t just an issue of losing money; it was an issue of losing money in her own house. She had called that apartment home for more than three years already, and it was difficult to think that it wasn’t safe enough. Seems like she couldn’t trust anybody anymore. And I guess with all the rising costs of living nowadays, even an honest man could be tempted. I guess Angela learned her lesson too late: never to leave her valuables out in the open like that. (Have you, Angie?)

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suspecting any of her housemates. Anybody could have just come in unnoticed and then took her money. Who knows? We could never be certain. (Although their maid suggested that we ask a manghuhula, but Angela doesn’t believe in that. Would have been fun to visit one, though.)

This incident really got me thinking, if we’re not safe at home then where can we really be safe? Are there people in our lives who we could totally trust, who we could say are absolutely honest no matter what happens? I guess we could never be quite sure, knowing that tao lamang tayo, vulnerable and inconsistent. In this life, there are no guarantees, only risks and leaps of faith.