WHO'S THE FOOL

A Story by Karthikeyan

A story of kindness, trust and betrayal....

It was a sunny day, the sun blesses by its both hands strongly. At that time a man was standing near the bus stop. He was a young unemployed man and seems to be in a great hunger right now. His appearance shows that he is from a poor background, wearing an ordinary dress having stitches around the shirt. He is actually waiting for the bus to his native the place. His native was 7kms from where he is standing.

He took his wallet to examine whether he is having any remaining bucks for drinking a tea. His bus fare was 20 bucks, unfortunately, he found only 20 bucks by searching the nook and corner of his purse. He was totally upset because his stomach is forcing him to take some food for him but as an alternate, his mind forces him to save the bucks for Travel allowance. At the end, he decided to go road side stall to take any food that he can afford by his money. The stall was on the next side of the road so he needs to cross over the road.

While he was trying to cross the road, an old handicapped man came and stand in front of him, his right arm found missing and he holds a plastic bag in his left hand. That man seems to have an age of not more than 70. He begs the young man for money to buy food for him by saying that he was left alone by his two sons and he lost his wife in an accident so he was detached and don’t know what to do. The old man’s appearance and his words made the young man to forget his own situation and his hunger. He took the entire 20 bucks and gave it to the old man by sayings that eat something with this money and I don’t have more than this. The old man replied with a smile and blessed the young man with kind words and he started to walk back.

The young man was totally satisfied with his heart, not by his stomach, anyhow now he needed to take walk towards his home and that’s the only thing left with him. At that time, he noticed that the old man, unfortunately, dropped his plastic bag over there. So he wanted to return back his bag of him and then he needed to walk back.

The sun started scorching. Even though he was young, he can’t able to bear the heat, but the young man was desperate to return back the bag of the old man. The old man made a good impact on the young man’s heart. He went to next side of the road in search of that old man. He can’t able to find the old man in the food stall. Now he decided to go with the bag as a memory of that old man. Suddenly, he somehow able to hear the voice of that old man. In a great eager the young man looks back but now he noticed a different person. The same old man was sitting there with a cigarette in his right hand accompanied with another person seems to be his friend, he amazed to found his right hand. The old man actually narrating the incident about how he betrayed the young man and how he managed to get 20 bucks from him.

Young man after hearing those conversations, he was totally shattered and his heart beat seems to be stopped for a moment. His mind started to blame him as a “fool” continuously. His mind wanted him to scold the old man but his heart refuses to do so. He stands there for more than 10 minutes without any action. Now he can’t able to tolerate this insult to the longer time. He now steps forward towards the old man.

Now the old man was alone there, He stands before him. The old man slowly looks up and saw him. For him, the young man was an unexpected visitor. The old man stood up and the young man returns back his bag of him and asked “WHY”. The old man was completely mute right now. The young man continued by saying that “I WON’T SCOLD YOU OR DEMAND MONEY FROM YOU BUT I WANT TO MAKE SURE I AM NOT A FOOL”. The old man realized his mistake and asked sorry for his mistake but the young man replied with a smile and walks back by shifting his pain to the old man.

Karthikeyan Palanivel