A Rich Theif!

I parked my Scooty under the tree shades and walked across the road to the roadside mango shop along with my Mom. This shop was quite famous in our locality for selling good mangoes and has many usual customers like us. The shop had already two / three people buying and bargaining when we approached and hence we waited to get the vendor lady’s attention.

One person was bargaining and the lady was also very rude in answering to him. Her attitude was like don’t waste my time in bargaining, leave the place if you don’t like the price. While my Mom was choosing the fruits, there came a car which stopped in front of the shop and two people who looked like husband and wife came to the shop. I was irritated in the way he parked his car on the road and when I noticed that, I also noticed an elderly woman seated inside the car. Meanwhile the vendor lady was also very pleased to welcome them and all attention to them.

The wife inquired about the price of lemons which was also present in the shop while the husband took a plate and picked some mangoes in it. The vendor lady was answering that wife and also attending a couple of other customers including my Mom. Meanwhile, after picking some 6 fruits in the plate the husband went near the car on the pretext of showing the fruits to the elderly woman and returned only with 3 fruits! I was really shocked by this. It took me sometime to understand what’s happening. He gave the three fruits to the vendor to weigh and paid for those and the lemon and they both left leaving behind a very pleased vendor!

When I was about to say something, my Mom held my hand and cautioned me not to talk anything. Then, while returning, I asked my Mom the reason for stopping me. She said, “I also saw what that man did, but do you think the vendor will believe you if you say that. She is always biased towards the people who seem rich. She herself will support him. In her opinion, the middle class normal looking people come to her to bargain while the rich won’t mind these few extra bucks. But, the reality is very different, isn’t it?”

Most of the vendors are biased, not only towards their regular customers but also based on the appearance of the customer. We can see this even in big shops. How you dress matters, your hair do matters and most importantly speaking in English matters! If you talk in Tamil or for that matter in any native language, its only coz you are not good at English and that clearly indicates that you cannot make enough money and of course without making much you are not going to spend much! I have witnessed this in a lot of scenarios!

In this incident I am more shocked by the activity of that man. It’s yet another proof that being educated or well-placed doesn’t have anything to do with a person’s character. This thought often cross my mind, when I see sedans parked on the road blocking half of the road, when people break in queues, when I see trash being thrown out of speeding cars, etc. But witnessing something like this – a well-planned theft! I just had to laugh, coming in a car to steal three mangoes! I imagined the three people plotting this theft sitting around a table in a dimly lit room (yeah- the old cinema style!).

But what can we expect from the world? We are reaping what we sow! Schools don’t teach you Integrity and honesty. It teaches how to run efficiently in the race called life! It makes you run for marks, which is just a practice to run for much bigger things later in life! Your work place doesn’t expect you to be honest or loyal. It demands you to use people and that’s how you can succeed! The effects of our actions are all around us and of course within us! Have we come so far where there is no point of return?

 

Very true @Pickle! The importance of teaching our next generation good values is diminishing! Parents often want their children to be super-performers and toppers rather than well-mannered or disciplined! These days parents dont even correct their kids when they misbehave in public! I have seen parents who boost about their arrogant, disrespectful kid's extracurricular abilities. So, the kid picks up the message that its ok to be disobedient or arrogant as long as you are performing well in something?!

 

Exactly Agatha! What hurts is when most of the educated people, who are supposed to make a better society, choose to neglect the moral values for monetary benefits!