The story of a knife from a thief's pocket

This story gives the perspective of a knife when it is being used by a thief.

I was surprised when I was picked up from my dusty surroundings which has been my home for the past 6 months and of late I have felt a little part of me getting corroded. One fine day a guy with the face of a saint came along and picked me up .He quickly threw a glance at me and said “this should be good enough for me, atleast for now”. I was excited about the thought of finally being of some use although I was put into a pocket full of holes. I was wondering what my first task would be, cutting a rope? Packet? Chopping something? Because that’s the kind of work a knife like me had been doing all this while. I was going to find out, very soon.

 After coming out of the alley where he found me, He got into a crowded bus where people hardly had any place to stand, probably travelling home, I thought.

He quietly took me out of his pocket and I could feel myself cutting through some fabric for a few seconds and then out of the hole that I had cut, came a leather wallet. That was when it struck me, the boy with the face of a saint was actually a thief! And I could feel my excitement dying. He quietly slid the wallet along with me into his pocket and made his way through the crowd till he reached the exit of the bus. He got down and started walking casually as if he had done nothing wrong. He took me out of his pocket along with the wallet and while holding me in one hand, he opened the wallet and found two notes each of Rs.500 and a few 20 rupee notes and some coins. He was absolutely delighted to see it.

He went on walking straight for about 4 km then he took a turn to his left and I could see a few huts in the distance .He walked on till he reached there, knocking on one of the doors, he slid me and the wallet into the pocket again and waited patiently till a middle aged woman in tattered clothes opened the door .She welcomed him and asked him how his day went , he said he had tried looking for jobs in construction sites but had no luck. The lady consoled him and asked him to wait till she brought him something to eat. He said he was too upset to eat and got up and walked out of the hut. I was surprised since he had not given her any of the money.

Once he was out, he walked towards another set of huts in the locality and found a group of people who were playing cards. He went towards them and said “ Today’s bet will be Rs. 1000 from my side”. They immediately stopped playing, greeted the boy with a smile and gave him a seat to sit on. He sat along with them and started to play, he won most of the time and was greeted by a lot of cheering by guys who stood behind him watching the game. After a few games and winning quite a good amount of cash, he walked away triumphantly.

After a few days I realised that he lived his life doing exactly the same thing every day and somehow he managed to walk away unharmed and unconvicted every single time although he was suspected a few times. Sometimes he took a friend along with him so that he could give away the goods before anyone even thought of searching him for the stolen goods and every single time I was the one being used for his sinister motive.

One fine day after stealing a purse from a woman who was buying some groceries from a shop, instead of going to his house he went to a nearby lake and stood near the railing that surrounded the lake. He started to ponder if he could make a big amount of money in one go instead of walking on thin ice every single day. While he was thinking about this he saw a middle aged woman staggering towards him. She was coughing and seemed to be having difficulty in breathing. She asked him to go and get her a   bottle of water, thrusting a twenty rupee note in his hand. He immediately rushed to a shop nearby and got her a bottle of water and ran back towards her. She took the bottle from him and drank from it , it  seemed to him like she  felt a little better. While he was watching her , he could see that she had a beautiful gold necklace and a chain  hanging around her neck , and two rings on her left hand. Taking a few steps behind he realised there were no people around .He quickly took me out and going behind her he placed me on her throat and demanded her to  give him all her jewellery. She was taken aback and wanted to scream but he realised she would and pressed me harder against her throat and said “You make a small sound and you are dead”. She quietly took the chain and the necklace and the rings and gave it to him, cursing him under her breath.

He was very happy with his gain and went to his colony, directly to the people who played cards around the same time every day. He proudly went and placed the jewellery on the table around which these people sat .  All of their eyes immediately fell on the jewellery and he could see that each of them wanted it desperately. He ordered one of the smaller boys to get up from his seat and sat on it like he owned them all. He took the jewels, put it back in his pocket and said  “ Anyone who can beat me ten times in a row can have all of this”. There was silence  for an entire five minutes.

While each one was thinking of his own strategy to beat him at a game of cards , ten times in a row , the boy from whom he took the chair said aloud “ I can beat you!” . Everyone’s eyes turned to him , followed by an uproar of laughter. The little boy not looking offended even a little bit , repeated “ I can beat you”. Everybody there laughed again and said “okay go ahead”.

 

The first game began and ended very soon and every one with a shocked expression on their faces watched him win. After the little boy won seven games In a row , each and every person present there started to support him. It was around midnight when the eighth game started and everyone gave it  their undivided attention. The  little boy had 3 kings as his cards and thinking he could win put his Ace card down, but as fate would have it , his opponent was collecting Aces. So as he put his cards down triumphantly showing three kings ,while  his opponent showed three Ace cards  and won the game .Everyone was disappointed and the crowd began to disperse.

As the little boy sat there with tears welling up in his eyes . He felt a hand on his shoulder and saw his opponent standing behind him with a smirk on his face and bending towards his ear he said “ I knew you couldn’t beat me!”, saying this he turned around to walk towards his home , but just then a cellphone that he had stolen started to ring and reaching down into his pocket he pulled it out. As he pulled it out, I fell out of his pocket. After a few seconds the little boy saw me lying on the ground and grabbed me . He quietly put me on my master’s throat and demanded him to give him the  jewellery as well  as any money that he had on him, but he was only met by resistance from my master who caught his hand and pushed him down. The little boy grabbed my master by the leg and pulled him down along with him and there was a fight between the two boys and since it was  past midnight no one was around to stop them.

Finally after a lot of punching and biting and scratching , the little boy took me and pressed me hard against my master’s throat and seeing that he was unwilling to give up , used me to slit his throat .I was shocked to see what this little boy had done ,while he got up with me in his hand I could see my master lying on the ground .I could see the pool of blood on the sand near his throat that I had caused . This little boy looked at me and said “Good job!” and started walking away from the colony .While he was walking on a street all alone , he could see an alley nearby, he walked towards it and threw me in the garbage dump.

 I was lying exactly where I was found a few days ago, it was the same old me but only with a new lesson learnt that “Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword”.

 

 

Author's Note

This is my first story so please me your honest reviews ...good or bad :)

Reviews

[M P Ramesh]

preethi,
Narration is craft inherent. THERE IS NO SHORT CUT. The issue is that once the writer gets himself/herself in between the holds of the twister called "pang of telling" he will surpass everything before him/her. Hence there is no apprehension about completion aND PERFECTION. aLL ART IS PERFECT PROVIDED IT IS DEALT WITH intellectual honesty like above..............

the same will get sharpened on usage...........

excellent attempt

carry on...........

mp ramesh