Dear reader, there are some things in any local community which are understood by mature persons only. The young cannot grasp them at all. The same applied to the village where I grew up regarding a man our locals nicknamed Mr. “I will greet you always”.
As a young boy I could not understand why whenever this man passed by any house in our village people would say ‘There goes Mr. “I will greet you always!”. So when I grew up I asked my uncle why this man was nicknamed Mr. “I will greet you always!”
He told me the following story:
“In this village there is a truck driver who, by the nature of his work, does not spend some of the nights at his home because of the remote villages where he picks up crop produce. As time went on, this truck driver realized that a certain man from the nearby village was in love with his wife. More than one informer had told him. So he laid a trap to catch this man. He duped his wife to believe he had gone on a long driving trip where he would spend two nights.
The truth was that he changed course and secretly returned to our village early evening. He hid in a dark location near his house to see what happens. As darkness gathered, he suddenly saw a man on a bike arriving at his house. This man was warmly greeted and kissed by his wife as they entered the house. The house owner silently crept close to his bedroom window. The noises he heard confirmed his long-time suspicions. His anger abruptly built up and he decided to take the law into his hands.
The first thing the house owner did was lock all the doors from outside. Next he got an axe and started smashing the adulterous man’s bike into pieces. By this time most people in the village had gathered at this house to see what was going on. After destroying the bike the irritated house owner opened one of the doors. The adulterous man used the opening to try to escape but his opponent threw him on the ground. The home owner raised the axe to smash the adulterous man’s head.
He said, “Not only do you cheat on my wife but every time you see me, you do not want to greet me. Let me kill you now”
On hearing this death sentence, the adulterous man got so scared and he made a vow that saved his life. He swore:
Sir please do not kill me, I swear before all these witnesses gathered here that I will greet you always!
On hearing this vow, the house owner spared the adulterous man’s life. From that day on, every time the adulterous man met the wife owner, he had to initiate the greetings. This was to fulfill the promise he made that “I will greet you always!” Since then all mature villagers nicknamed this man Mr. “I will greet you always”
The moral in this story is that if you want your life, you should never date a married woman or man or else you will become a Mr. or Ms. “I will greet you always”. (Exodus 20:14)
“I will greet you always”
