HONESTY REALLY PAYS !!

HONESTY PAYS !!

Once when I was driving my car through the crowded small lanes behind Anderson Street in Parrys corner in Chennai [it is still a nightmare to venture driving there !!] I drove unknowingly in a one way street on the wrong side. There was no way I could turn back but fortunately there were no vehicles coming in our way. At that time I spotted a traffic constable about 40 feet away. As I couldn’t dodge him I drove boldly [!!] straight up to him and asked innocently the way to the shop I was searching for.
He stared at me, looked at the license plate, knew that I was out of city man [country goose!] and asked where I was from. When I replied he asked whether I was aware that I was driving the wrong way.
I feigned surprise and offered to turn back.
He glared at me but later softened “Never mind. Drive straight. Your shop is about 4 buildings away.”
Bingo ! Not only had I wriggled out of the tight situation but also managed to drive to the shop easily.

But the leaf has been taken out from my younger day’s era.
During my childhood in Rangoon in the holidays we, boys, used to roam along, climbing mango trees and plucking the small mangoes [that our pocket money would have easily bought many numbers of good mangoes could not deter us].
In one such venture, two of us were on the look-out [some look out!] while one agile boy climbed to pluck the mangoes. Suddenly a Burmese man from a nearby house came running, shouting and wielding a stick.
Our first reaction was to run but we realized that our partner who has climbed the tree and who was now descending at a record speed could never make it in time and as steadfast thieves we stuck together.

I thought we were in for a bashing as the Burmese people are known to be a rough lot, when my friend who was standing beside me hissed in a small voice in Tamil ‘Stay calm”.
The man who ran up to us was clearly perplexed as to why we were standing undeterred and calm [well, more or less!]. He asked the boy who had now reached ground why he had climbed the tree.
My friend again said in low voice in Tamil ‘Tell him that you did it to pluck the mangoes”
Given time, he would have questioned the sanity of the reply but he was at his wits end [like me] and blurted out the same to the Burmese man.
Hearing the astoundingly honest reply the man scratched his head, lowered the stick and said ‘But, this tree belongs to me “
“Is that so?’ my look out friend calmly replied “We thought it was a common tree “ .

The so called private trees on no man’s area were usually marked with a ring of barbed or plain wire and fortunately there was no such thing.
“No. It is mine. Now, clear off” he shouted.
We strolled away slowly curbing our instinct to run. When we were out of sight we took to our heels.
My friend explained later that the brain wave came to him only when the Burmese man asked why we climbed the tree!