AHSA: It’s always simpler to borrow money from a friend or a chit fund than it is to deal with the giant squid called the modern financial services system. A schoolteacher here learned this the hard way when an unpaid 25 halalas (about six cents) from a previous finance arrangement for a SR320 ($85) kitchen appliance not only blocked his ability to re-borrow, but left him with no way to pay off the coin. According to Thursday’s edition of Al-Yaum newspaper, a loan application was denied because the coin owed another bank was considered an outstanding loan. But when he went to pay the pittance, the other bank refused to accept the coin payment because the sum was so small. The man told the paper he felt wedged between the rock of one bank and the hard place of another bank.