LESSONS ON TRUST
The other day , I was getting petrol filled at the bunk , when a boy of about fourteen years came up to my car to sell lottery tickets .He kept on pleading with me to buy a ticket .When I told him I don't buy lottery tickets ,he pleaded again saying that he wanted to buy a school bag with the sale earnings . The way he kept pleading I was tempted to buy a ticket ,just to oblige him. But I had left home in a hurry and had not taken my purse in which I kept cash . I had only my credit card with me and told him that I did not have enough cash . I could observe that he did not believe me. The expression on his face said it all. Just as he left another boy ,hardly ten years old, approached me and he also literally begged me to buy a lottery ticket . When I asked him , shouldn’t you be in school now, he told me that the State school he studied in had declared a holiday as the building was being used for some program sponsored by the Government. He told me that he had got the Lottery tickets from an Agent known to his father and wished to buy a new umbrella with his earnings. Out of curiosity I asked him what kind of umbrella he wanted. He said he had set his eyes on a blue umbrella with a curved handle in a shop at the junction. I told him that I was in a hurry to pick up someone and did not have cash with me. On an impulse I felt I could buy him the umbrella instead of purchasing a ticket. I asked him whether I could buy him the umbrella he wanted instead of buying a ticket .He was so excited that he told me the name of the shop and the brand name and price of the umbrella. I told him that I would come back in the afternoon and would then take him to the shop and buy him the umbrella. I could see the disbelief in his eyes at my statement, but he was thrilled and with all the innocence of a ten year old child called out “you will come, won’t you ? “ . I drove away , waving back in assurance. If just a thought of getting an umbrella made the boy so happy , how much more he would be when I actually got him one....that was the thought I had in mind while driving from the petrol bunk. I felt elated that I would be doing my good Deed for the day and making a little boy happy by the end of the day !
In the afternoon I was driving towards the petrol bunk to pick him up, when at the Traffic junction I
chanced to see the teenager boy who had approached me first at the bunk , standing near the Liquor outlet close to the junction . Instinctively I felt that he was waiting for someone who had gone
into the shop. I was right .
I saw a man come out of the shop and hand over a bottle to the boy. I wondered whether the boy had
got the bottle purchased for himself ,or was it for a
drunkard father who had ordered him
to come home with the stuff, or was it for the Lottery Agent who had assigned him the
task. Whatever it was , I felt that both boys were over smart and were trying to earn sympathy from the public by talking about the reason why they were selling Lottery tickets. I decided that I would not go back to the petrol bunk as promised to the younger boy , as I
felt that the umbrella story was a cooked up one for an emotional appeal and in
all probability that boy would also be going home with a bottle of liquor ,after selling
off the umbrella too , if I bought him
one.
It was around
four in the evening and I was driving
back home and was again held up in the traffic . As usual I was taking in the sights around when suddenly I
saw the little boy whom I had promised to buy the umbrella for ,
right before my eyes ,coming out
of the corner umbrella shop with a new blue
umbrella held tightly in his hand packed in a transparent plastic cover. He was
walking towards the Bus stop with a euphoric gait and he had the expression of someone who had won a trophy in a competition . My heart skipped a beat and
I shrunk
inwardly , with shame and remorse. To think that I had not kept my promise to him just because I saw the other boy get a bottle from a beverages outlet ! I am yet to get over the feeling of guilt of having let him down. He must have surely waited
for me. His words "You will come ,won't you ? " keeps ringing in my ears till this day. With this incident he
would never ever trust a stranger especially those who make promises. And me …
I will have to live with the guilt of being responsible for that. But then ,
I try to console myself with the thought that in
today’s world ,it is difficult to decipher who is genuine and who is not. The unexpected has become so much the matter of the day that it
ceases to surprise.
