Am I Responsible for Paying a Company the Missing Money I Was Cheated out Of?
Answered by Ustadh Sufyan Qufi
Question
Today, a bus conductor charged me 50 INR without issuing a receipt. After insisting, he issued a receipt showing a lower fare, allowing him to keep 8 INR. Am I responsible for paying the bus company the missing 10 INR?
Answer
In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,
I pray this finds you in the best of states.
No, you are not responsible for paying any money to the bus company.
The bus driver has charged you 50 INR. He gave you a receipt of 42 INR because he has kept 8 INR for himself.
Thus he has deemed the price of the service offered to you by the bus company to be 42 INR.
He is acting as an agent for the bus company, and thus, he is the one cheating you and maybe the bus company too.
He has been cheating you by demanding from you a higher price than what you should have paid (50 INR instead of 42 INR).
Is he cheating the bus company? It’s possible but unlikely as you have demanded a receipt that will be double-checked by the company and most likely represent what you should have paid in the first place if the bus driver was honest: ie 42 INR instead of 50 INR.
In short, the bus conductor has overcharged you of 8 INR and has kept this extra money for himself. You are the victim here and you should report this dishonest bus driver to the bus company and/or the authorities.
Allah (Most High) says: “And let there be amongst you a group inviting to virtue, commanding the good and forbidding evil—those indeed are the successful ones” [Quran, 3:104].
The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) has said: “Help your brother, whether he is an oppressor or he is an oppressed one. People asked, ‘O Allah’s Messenger! It is all right to help him if he is oppressed, but how should we help him if he is an oppressor?’ The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, ‘By preventing him from oppressing others.’” [Bukahri]
And Allah knows best.
Wassalam
[Ustadh] Sufyan Qufi
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat
Ustadh Sufyan Qufi is an advanced seeker of knowledge, originally from Algeria, who grew up in France. He began searching far and wide for answers to the fundamental questions of life and was disappointed at the answers he found. Then he connected with various traditional teachers and gradually connected with SeekersGuidance. He embarked on his journey of learning through the various teachers at SeekersGuidance, including his mentor Shaykh Faraz Rabbani. He studied numerous texts in Islamic Law, Theology, Hadith, and other areas with Shaykh Faraz Rabbani and other teachers, including Shaykh Abdurrahman al-Sha‘ar, Shaykh Ali Hani, and others. He is an active instructor at SeekersGuidance and answers questions through the SeekersGuidance Answers Service.
