Reciprocity - What we do in Life always comes back to us
A couple of days ago, I was driving to the Emirates Towers Hotel in Dubai to meet with an important client. The entrance to the hotel’s parking is usually restricted to those who wish to legitimately use the hotel’s bars and restaurants. A rather strict system of controlled access allows a person to drive into the hotel car park after confirming to the security men at the bottom of the long driveway, that one is truly parking at the hotel to spend money within its premises and not merely to use the parking facility.
A clever system whereby the security man at the gate logs your car’s registration number and your time of entry into the car park, is the norm. I was given the usual paper parking receipt to confirm my time of arrival. As a frequent visitor to the hotel I was aware of the three hour rule, by which the parking facility is free for 3 hours if the user has the parking receipt stamped by the staff of the cafe or restaurant visited.
Having completed my meeting, I dutifully had my receipt stamped by the waitress, paid my bill, collected my briefcase and jacket and headed for the car-park. I am usually very careful with the parking receipt and was certain that it was safely in my trouser pocket. I placed my briefcase and jacket in the car, and drove out of the car park.
I drew level with the security guard at the exit and to my dismay realized the duly stamped receipt was no longer in either trouser pocket. I grabbed my jacket and sifted through each of its pockets to no avail. A quick look through my wallet confirmed that I was receipt-less. As the hotel charges AED 10 per half hour of parking a bill of about AED 50 or approximately USD 15 was staring me in the face. As was, the chagrin of the other drivers whose cars were starting to queue impatiently behind mine.
In true Dubai style a few were already beeping at my seeming selfishness at holding them up. I pulled my car over to the side and allowed the other drivers to pass. Under a barrage of disapproving stares, I checked my wallet for the AED 50, that would allow me to leave. As circumstance would have it, I did not have the cash on me. By this time the very polite and usually patient security guard had realized that either he was dealing with a complete numpty or perhaps I was trying every known trick to get off without paying. His sympathy towards me was clearly in the decline and the mounting antagonism showed clearly on his face.
Just as he demanded in no uncertain terms that I re-park, visit the cashline in the hotel and arrange to pay the parking fees, another more senior security man in a suit joined him.
It took the second security man a few seconds to appraise himself of the situation. He looked intently at me through his sunglasses and said the words “Sir, please you can go”. I couldn’t believe my ears. “Are you sure?” I replied, by now already psychologically prepared to visit the cashline. “Yes Sir, please you can go.”
“Thank you very much” I said and then he continued
“Sir, three years ago, there was fight near the hotel lift, with drunk guests, you stay at hotel. You help me when guest hit me, late at night time, do you remember.”
I did indeed remember. Prior to living in Dubai, I used to visit on business. The preferred hotel of my company was the Emirates Towers. I had stayed there frequently over a period of three years. I clearly remembered the night when a colleague and I had finished dinner at about eleven in the evening and were waiting for the lift in the lobby.
Two very inebriated individuals were at the far end of the rank of lifts arguing loudly in a mixture of English and Arabic with on of the hotel security men. He was quite obviously preventing them from access to the upper storeys of the hotel, due to their drunken state. As we saw the lift lights in front of us light up, indicating its arrival on the ground floor, I saw one of the men strike the security man full in the face. My colleague and I moved fast to help, and grabbed the two drunks, a number of hotel security guards were there almost immediately and the two were well and truly secured.
I asked the struck security guard how he was and than told the security supervisor what I had seen happen. The next morning I received a kind letter of Thanks from the hotel for my help and left Dubai to head home to London, thinking no more of the incident.
Three years down the line, there was the very same man in front of me. What amazed me, was his ability to both remember and acknowledge my very minor part in the event that had occurred in the hotel lobby over three years ago. I was overcome with a feeling that was very hard to define. In retrospect I can sum it up as a mixture of humility and emotion stirred by the true kindness of this man. Here was the law of reciprocity very alive and very personal indeed. Not only had I been rescued from a difficult situation, but my own learning had been enhanced in the belief that what we do daily, the acts of love and kindness we commit, do come back and help us in our lives.
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