Ngultrum 10

A Story by chhimijiks

The story touches the value of treating everybody same/ not undermining people.

* Ngultrum is Bhutanese unit of money.

*Nu. is short form of Ngultrum

Ngultrum 10

Uncommonly, a poor orphan boy and a rich girl were in love. They planned to get married. One day the orphan visited her home. Her father was counting heaps of notes. The orphan, collecting all the courage asked her father for her hand in marriage. It was not surprise that easily infuriated her father. The rich man stopped counting notes and laughed dryly. “Are you insane?” shot the rich man. He pulled a Ngultrum 10 note from the packet and threw it on the orphan boy’s face. “You beggar, you are not worth this note yet you dream to marry my daughter. Have you got something called shame?” The orphan boy responded with silence with his head bent down. The silence angered him more. The rich man picked up the note and impudently forced the note into the orphan boy’s pocket and pushed him out of the gate. “Take that Nu. 10 as alms and dare not to show your filthy face ever again.”

The orphan snailed away from the gate. He was hurt. He was gasping rapidly and tried to fight back the emotion. Finally he yielded to tears. He cried a lot. Everybody seemed against him. He cursed everybody. He cursed the world. He felt his heart shedding with his eyes. He cried until he was exhausted for crying was the only solace for him. From that day he was neither seen in the town nor did people gossip about him. The rich man married his daughter to a son of the richest man of the town. The rich man became richer and led extravagant life than before. Not excepting the rich man, his daughter also didn’t regret in chasing away her poor lover when she lived the life of a queen. She hardly paused to reminisce her poor lover.

5 years later, a fierce inflation struck the country unpleasantly. Goods cost loads of notes. Rice became precious than anything. The inflation stunned even wealthy people of the town. Then poor farmers were branded as rich man for they have stocks stacked from their fields. For any price, they were obstinately unwilling to sell even a bag full of rice though. That year starvation claimed lots of lives.

The rich man’s family was also starving. One day the rich man heard about a rice supplier who sold rice in the nearby town. Without wasting time, he carried Nu. 1 million and travelled to buy the rice. He met the man.

“I want to buy all the rice you have stocked here.” The man stared at his face sardonically. “How much you have got?” “Nu. 1 million.” “You don’t have enough to buy a bag of rice yet you brazenly demand to buy all the stock? A bag of rice costs Nu. Two hundred, one thousand and 1 million.” The rich man was dumbfounded for few seconds but he wanted to buy it at any cost. “I want to buy it still.” He paid Nu. 1 million and started frisking his pockets for remaining money. From his trouser’s pocket he got Nu.1000, jackets pocket he got Nu. 150 (which he reserved it for snacking). He got only Nu. 1150 in total, he fell short of Nu. 50 still. “Okay! I have got 2 million one thousand one hundred fifty, please for god’s sake exempt me from 50.” “Sorry I can’t.” “Then I will pay the remaining next time.” “Take the rice next time, when you pay.” The rich man finally decided to borrow it from people who came there. Unfortunately, nobody was interested. On the way back to the seller, an old man let him borrow Nu. 40 after he promised to pay Nu. 100,000 the next day. Still he fell short of 10. He came back to the seller and nagged to exempt him from Nu. 10. The seller grew more stubborn and angrier every time he begged for exemption. The seller was unprecedentedly obstinate. He couldn’t go home empty handed. In his life, he had been throwing money. Then he was ready to offer anything for a penny.

Finally, he decided to beg. Unnoticed to anybody, he went near a beggar who was sleeping. He took off his hat, placed it in front of him, covered his face with his jacket and sat down and waited for compassionate commuters to drop coins in his hat. By the dusk of the day, he counted only nine coins in his hat. He looked around to find everybody was gone. The rice seller was readying to leave. He almost cried not knowing what to do.

He threw his gaze randomly. He felt something strangling him. Suddenly his sight was caught by alms bowl of the beggar sleeping next to him. Bowl was full of coins because it had been lying there untouched the whole day. He decided to pick a coin from there. He thought that the beggar would never know. He swiftly picked a coin from the bowl like a professional thief and disappeared from there. He finally bought a bag of rice and prepared to leave home.

“You! An audacious man. You dare to steal my coin in the broad daylight brazenly. Give me my coin back.” Somebody shouted from behind. He knew it was the beggar sleeping next to him but the sound of the speaker seemed familiar to him.

The rich man slowly turned his blushed face. There stood the orphan boy. It left the rich man paused for few second with his mouth slightly opened. “Oh! You were the one sleeping next to me? Poor boy to a poor beggar now?” The rich man seemed to feel relieved and superior on seeing the poor boy. He forgot what he had done few minutes earlier. The poor boy in rags just smiled with his lips closed and responded with silence. The seller cleaned the couch, he looked at the poor boy and vowed. Then poor boy majestically walked to the couch and sat comfortably. The rich man was confused and gave a serious stare to the seller and the boy.

“I should thank you for all the fortune I have now” the boy sounded seriously. “What..? How..?” wobbled the rich man drowned in confusion.“You threw me away from your daughter’s life. You remember? I saw suicide as only salvation. I threw your Nu.10 note into a beggar’s alms bowl on the way to give up my life. The beggar knew what mess I was up to. Somehow he could convince me to lead a new life. Later, he was found to be a great card magician. He is the seller. He played a simple trick on you too. He used his magic to keep you short of Nu.10.” the boy laughed like an apathetic boss and sipped the water placed on the table.

“I saw profit in his talent. He was not difficult to persuade; we went to different places where people played cards and won lots of money with the help of his magic. We left playing games after we have hoarded enough money. Then we started this grocery business together, which is clean and lucrative. And here, I sit comfortably in front of you today. All because of you. NO?” The rich man was quite and staring away from the boy probably because of shame or jealouse of good fortune of the boy. He looked like a wilted plant; his gloomy face with his lips dried while his eyes were troubled in holding water in it.

He lifted the load and was about to leave. “Thank you so much for showing my worth; I am worth that Nu.10 but you failed to prove your worth this time,” said the boy with a noticeable grin in his face. The rich man without a word turned to leave home. Deep inside him he agreed with the boy. He failed to prove that he was rich when he struggled to pay Nu. 10. When the rich man was about to exit the store gate, he was stopped by a man and handed him a small piece of paper. He paused to read. It read:

PLEASE KINDLY ACCEPT THE COIN YOU PICKED FROM MY BOWL AS ALMS BUT COME AGAIN.

He heard the blaring snicker from behind.