Why are we so gullible?

You might be considering yourself very smart. You might say, no, I am not gullible. But hold on. Have you taken any loan recently? Have you opened a Bank account? Have you entered in any lease or Rental agreement? Have you signed an employment contract? Have you ever applied for an electricity connection or Water connection? Or any other service provided by the government? Are you paying excess tax? Have you read the tax clauses properly? Have you done any investment recently? Have you purchased a car or any heavy equipment that needs maintenance? Do you know the clauses in there? In all these things there are clauses and conditions that may have gone unnoticed.You might say how can we remember all that? We do everything in good faith – until we are cornered. That’s the catch. We allow ourselves to be cheated – we are gullible.

If ever you find a good lawyer and sit with him with all the documents you have you probably will be amazed that on every opportunity you have been taken for a ride. People, establishments, government were someway cheating on you. The agreements you signed were either not clearly understood or not read. When we sign a contract we sign it in good faith. We believe in the person contacted. The bank manager, the friend who came to our house, our neighboring Insurance agent, our close relative who suggested this thing or that thing – we trust all of them.

Never sign a contract without reading the terms and conditions and understanding it.

Never sign anything in a hurry (The loan agents of financial companies & Banks often bring the original agreement at the last moment. These forms will have conditions other than what is mentioned in the proposal document that is given to you for reading prior to the deal.)


Never take it for granted that the terms and conditions are ‘as usual’ or ‘normal’. There is nothing called ‘as usual’. Any condition is amendable as per your demand. People believe in the printed forms and think that they are statutes that can not be changed.

Insist on the signed contract copy. Preserve it.

One thing we should know is that with the advent of consumer courts and consumer protection rights, the manufacturers, the dealers, Banks, establishments, government organizations have become cleverer. They take extra precaution. They overreact and go to some extremes. I recently got a document to sign from a reputed financial institution. It said that it is a SEBI requirement and upon checking I found that it is not.

By the way did you check your recent bank statements thoroughly? It says that if you do not inform them within 15 days, what ever is there in it would be treated as correct!

If you are living in Kerala look at the terms and conditions they print behind an electricity bill.