Why should money be there?

A Short Story Written by me  

(Life is so strange)------Artistic wRiter

One day I met one of my old friends, Yadav in a coffee shop. I still remember his character in the school days; he was very stingy and never used to spend any of his money for his friend’s. I never used to have coffee outside but that day one of my office mate asked me to meet him there as he had a parcel to be handed over. I got the parcel and when I was about to leave, Yadav caught me from behind and forced me to have a coffee with him. I denied it first, but when he forced for the second time, I couldn’t neglect. We had a long chat about our job, our families and this went on for sometime and than we decided to have our dinner there itself. We ordered our food and decided to share the total bill just as we do in the school days. We continued our chat and he enquired about my marriage life, I said that I am still unmarried. He gave a big smile and said, “you are a very happy man!” from this I understood that he was married. I asked him how many kids he have, he said one boy, 3yrs old. We finished our dinner and I promised to come and meet his son one day. We asked for the bill.

The bill was 535/-RS, and since Yadav is a good lover of foods I didn’t expect anything less. I ran my hand inside my purse and was shocked to find just fifty rupees alone, as I always carry less cash and remaining in my debit card. My face turned white and I was afraid how Yadav will react (thinking his school day’s character). But to my surprise Yadav kept 600/-RS on the table and asked the waiter to keep the change. He turned towards me and said, “Let this be my treat”. I was dump struck. I thanked Yadav and explained him my current situation. I exclaimed, “why should money be there? Instead people could have bargained like the olden days na?” to my surprise Yadav suddenly gave a loud laugh, and almost everyone in the hotel turned and had a look at us. As it was getting very late, we couldn’t discuss on that topic, that day.

Days passed, almost after three months I visited Yadav’s house. He was very happy to see me, so was his wife and his small boy. I bought few toys for the boy and I thanked Yadav for the treat he gave me that day. Suddenly I remembered Yadav laughing aloud that day and explained the situation to his wife, when she heard this, she too gave out a hearty laugh. I realized that something must have happened related to that topic and that must have changed Yadav’s character. So I asked Yadav “What was the matter?”

Yadav was just as stingy as he was in the school days till a year before. But a small incident occurred in his life, which changed his whole character. Even though Yadav was strict in spending money, he too got into money trouble one day. He was asked to pay about 1, 00,000/-RS by the moneylender from whom he got the money to buy a property. But Yadav couldn’t get any idea of finding a source to return the money. That night Yadav and his wife discussed about this issue and they were worried about this issue. Finally Yadav cursed the world “why should money be there?” though they were in critical situation; his wife couldn’t stop laughing at this childish thought of Yadav. She somehow consoled her husband and both of them went to sleep.

Next day morning Yadav as usual went to nearby grocery shop to buy the morning newspaper, milk and vegetable for the break fast. On the way Yadav found a boy collecting stones, which fell down from an old man’s bag. Yadav couldn’t understand why the boy is collecting stone and why the old man was carrying it in his bag, he thought for a while and decided that he might be picking them for playing. But after a while he saw a big guy beating the boy and getting the stones from him, and the old man was found near him. Yadav was very curious about the matter, but he had no time to waste, as he was already late for work. He rushed to the grocery shop and gave a 100/-RS and asked for his groceries. The shopkeeper turned towards him but didn’t get the money, instead he attended another customer. This went on for a while, Yadav got wild and said, and “why aren’t you attending me” the shopkeeper turned towards him and said, “Bring me some stones and I will give you the groceries” Yadav asked,  “what stones? Take the money and give me the change tomorrow” The shopkeeper said, “what money? Who want this small piece of paper, I have enough of them, I am building a house and I am in need of black stones for concrete roofing, so bring the stone and get the groceries”

Yadav was really shocked “what happened to these people, is there no value for money!” Yadav had some stones left from his roofing work; he took all of them and went to the shop. The shopkeeper was delighted he took the stones and gave Yadav groceries, which was enough for almost two weeks. Yadav was shocked; he informed this to his wife, she was shocked too. According to his calculation to buy groceries for two weeks he at least need 2000/-Rs but he would have given just 200 stones, so he thought one stone cost 10RS ha ha ha quiet funny isn’t it? Yadav said, “I hope from now stones are used as money”

Yadav had some old clothes at home, that evening Yadav took the cloths to sell it for some stones, on the way a TV show room man stopped him and asked his old cloths for 21” colour TV. Yadav was really very happy; he thought that today is his luckiest day. But he realized one thing that as there is no money any more, what ever thing they have they are bargaining it for the thing they want, just like the olden days, and he felt this was better than using money.

Yadav’s wife didn’t know all these things according to her, 1 stone is equal to 10RS, so when the loan lender came to ask for the loan, she asked him to take their house for the debit, and for the remaining give stones, the moneylender was surprised to hear this, but he thought that this was his chance, he gave her about 1,00,000 stones which can be 10,00,000/-RS according to her calculation, and she gave the house documents. She promised to leave the house by next day morning. When Yadav came to know this he was shocked, he went to the shopkeeper and asked for bargain but the shopkeeper had enough of stones and so he denied it. They have nothing but some stones. People’s need may vary from day to day, bargaining for objects works well only if we have the right object at the right time. Now Yadav realized why should money be there, but he was very much worried about the next day. They slept uncomfortably that night.

Next day Yadav woke up and told to his wife, “we have to find someone to sell the stones” his wife asked him, “What stones?” Yadav said everything to her, she had a great laugh and explained him that it was just a dream, Yadav was relaxed and he realized that money is valuable but life values more than that. So he sold one of his property and paid the moneylender 1,00,0000/-RS and from that day he started living in a new way

When I heard this story, I really felt funny but at the same time there is something we can learn from this, we all had a hearty laugh that day. One small dream can change man’s character ah? Its quiet strange, that’s why I always say

 Life is so strange, isn’t it?