Rätt ska vara rätt. (Right should be right.)
I’ll be one of 20,000 runners participating in the Adidas Stockholm half marathon in a few days (end of August 2025). But until yesterday afternoon, I had struggled to get a slot until a random stranger (let’s call her Anna Försberg) in some faraway corner of the world sold her ticket to me and refunded me in part for having overcharged unintentionally in the first place.
In May 2025, I decided to participate but was unable to register. At the time, it felt like I still had some time to try again later. When I checked again in early July, it was sold out in all categories, and not even my email to the organisers could secure me a slot to be part of the race officially.
It was my friend, Nathalie T, who pointed me to a Facebook group where marathon tickets were resold by people who had to cancel for whatever reason or had just bought extra tickets to resell. Weeks of constantly checking the group and responding to people who posted about selling their ticket came back with “Sorry, I have sold it to someone else”, and a few scammers.
With the race a few days away, the chance to get a slot got slimmer until Anna Försberg responded to my comment on her post on Tuesday (August 5). “I’ll sell to the first person.” I showed interest late again, as someone else had commented on her post before me. On Thursday (August 7), she wrote again, “It is still available, if interested.” We chatted a bit – not plenty shalaye, plus I was really ready to buy it and considered myself lucky. She told me the cost of the ticket and the additional cost for name transfer. It was roughly twice as much as I would have paid if I had registered in May or earlier; now the cost did not matter much. I was just thankful to finally get a ticket and requested the payment details.
Without much back and forth, I swished to her, she paid for the name change and told me I’ll get an email from the organizers. The email came as soon as I replied “OK” to her. Hurray! But it didn’t end there. A few minutes later, I returned from lunch and saw her messages, apologising and informing me that it was another ticket she bought for that prize, and she had swished (transferred) back the difference to me. Indeed, she had! It was a significant sum, and she could have kept it to herself as a service fee, profit for the ‘business,’ her luck, or answers to urgent 2K prayer.
I told her that it was truly kind of her and that I was very pleased. Then she replied, Rätt ska vara rätt, meaning right should be right. We were chatting in Swedish. This has left me thinkings; some would argue, “Oh, that wasn’t anything extra or special,” but she could have kept the funds and used it to shop at H $ M, or to buy a new pair of Hoka running shoes but she did not, she sent it back without asking, just because right should be right.
Grateful that my path crossed with people like Anna who remind me of values. Values that we must treasure as humans.
With a grateful heart,
SA / Abuja / August 2025.
P.S: Shalaye is a Nigerian slang for unnecessary explanation and convincing on an issue.