A vendor in Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah, Georgetown suffered a loss of nearly RM3,000 due to a misunderstanding about a free honey-sweet watermelon (tembikai madu) giveaway, which not only disrupted his business but also went viral on social media.
A video circulating since yesterday showed visitors expressing disappointment over the “false” information.
The vendor, Mohd Musdi Mustafa Kamal, 40, confirmed the incident, which happened at his stall that had only been open for a week before Ramadan.
He explained that he had received a call the night before from someone claiming to live in Seberang Perai, who wanted to donate watermelons to the public.
“The man said the giveaway would take place at 4pm on the 1st of Ramadan. But before that, he asked me to make a promotional video and send it to him.”
“I admit it was my mistake not to ask for more details about the number of melons he planned to donate. I just made the video and shared it on social media that night,“ he told Berita Harian.
After the video went viral, Mohd Musdi’s workers informed him that people had already started lining up from 2pm to claim the “free” honey-sweet type watermelons.
When he rushed to the stall, he found out that the donor had only intended to donate RM200 worth of melons.
Not wanting to disappoint the crowd—some of whom had traveled from Seberang Perai—Mohd Musdi decided to divide his stock and give them away.
“More than 400kg of watermelons meant for sale had to be given out, but it’s okay. I’ve accepted it as charity.”
“I couldn’t bear to let them go home empty-handed, especially since some had walked over a kilometer in the scorching heat to get here.”
“We faced criticism and insults from people accusing us of being dishonest. Fortunately, some understood the situation.”
Taking it as a test on the first day of Ramadan, Mohd Musdi promised to be more cautious in the future.
“If we had known the donation amount was so small, we wouldn’t have made the promotional video. We could have just quietly distributed the melons to locals here.”
“But what’s done is done, and we’re not blaming anyone,“ he said.
