Your Trust is about to be Broken

What would you do if you learned something disturbing about someone you are close to . . . maybe someone you deeply admire or even love?

Let’s imagine a hypothetical situation with someone close to you. We’ll name that person BH. What if, say, BH worked with a colleague called DT who caught BH looking at porn while at work?

DT is a close work-friend of BH’s and doesn’t want to believe this dark turn of events. What should DT do? Should DT tell their employer? Confront BH?

Let’s take this further and create a story for what DT does after he catches BH looking at porn at work. For the sake of getting through this fictional story, we’ll use the male pronoun for these characters.

DT is dismayed and confused at first, so he takes 24 hours to digest the situation. Could DT really have seen what he thought? Was BH really looking at porn on his computer at work? His friend sure doesn’t seem like the type. In fact, BH is a good, religious man who detests immorality. He even helps homeless men and women who have gotten themselves into trouble, get back on their feet.

DT decides he will remain quiet about BH’s indiscretion. It was probably a one-time lapse in judgement, but he will keep a close eye on BH just to be sure.

Over the coming weeks, DT catches BH two more times looking at porn at work. What should he do? BH is a computer genius and knows how to work around systems. If DT confronts him, he could surely deny it and then cover his tracks for no one to find the evidence. What if DT goes directly to their employer with the information? Would he be betraying a friend? Would BH still be able to keep his nefarious behavior hidden and make DT look like a lying lunatic?

Once again, DT takes some time to digest the situation and eventually decides to do a covert reconnaissance on his friend BH. DT listens to BH talk on the phone. For several days the conversations are work related, until one personal call sounds suspicious. BH says he’s going to meet someone on his lunch hour.

DT follows BH to his meeting and finds himself in a dangerous neighborhood. He watches BH from a distance while in a vehicle. BH has a five-minute conversation with a man with a thick beard and baseball cap visor covering his eyes. After those few minutes, the men exchange something. DT can’t tell for sure what he’s seeing from his vantage point, but it looks like they exchange money and some kind of compact computer drive.

DT’s spying goes on for several months, and he learns many more disturbing things about his friend and colleague. BH is not only watching pornographic material, but he is involved in a world of drugs and child porn as well.

Still, DT doesn’t know what to do. All he has, is his word against BH’s. So, for several weeks, he carefully and secretly gathers evidence. First, he goes to BH’s loved ones to warm them about the coming storm when their employer finds out.

That’s where you come in. DT comes to you and shows you his evidence.

How do you react?

I’d presume it might be like the five stages of grief. The first step might be denial. Anger is stage two, but who would you be angry with? Would you be mad at DT for revealing it, or at BH for betraying your trust and being such a devious degenerate?

This hypothetical story is going to come true in the near future. People you may have deeply admired all of your life will turn out to be BH.

Please keep an open mind and prepare.