He wanted a bribe, I gave him a better option

The other day I was at a counter of a public office. I needed some documents to be acted on. At the counter, I was told I could only pick them a couple of days later.

While there I had witnessed at least two people getting theirs acted in minutes. So I decided not to relent. I waited until the young guy had served the last person. 

"Boss nataka kwenda na hizo documents Leo." (Boss, I need to leave with those documents) "Basi itabidi ucheze Kama wewe" (You need to do something) he responded. "Sawasawa" I said. 

"Basi rudi after 20 minutes". (come back after 20 minutes). He said as he put a tiny mark at the bottom of my document. A mark of corruption of some sort.

I went to the bench and prepared a paper the size of a Sh1000 note. I went back to the counter after the twenty minutes.

True to his words, the documents were ready. As he passed me the document, I passed the folded paper under the documents, like others had done to give the bribe, which he quickly took and put in his pocket with a big smile. On it I had written. " You can serve without expecting a bribe".