A Deal Of 100 Toys

Ramesh was a middle-aged man who had a wife and two children. He lived in a small village 19 kilometers away from the district town. He was a self-made man. Though he was not rich like rich people, he was doing everything to give a normal life to his family. A one-bedroom cemented house with a small kitchen, a bathroom, and the small terrace above. He sent his children to the local govt. school. His wife did all the housework. And apart from that, she helped him in making toys for selling. Ramesh was a toy seller. He made small wooden toys, toys from the soil, and dolls from cotton and cheap fabric.

Ramesh would arrange all the toys in a bag with a couple of them tied to the outer side of the bag for a showcase, and then he would move to the district town for selling them from door to door or in the local market. He didn’t sell the toys in his own village. He knew children of the village cannot afford them. Instead, he would sometimes offer these toys for free to the village kids.

He was doing enough to make his ends meet by selling toys from door to door. And he loved his work.

One fine day, a young man named Shubham came looking for Ramesh to his village. He asked for his home address from the little kids roaming around. And the kids took him straight to Ramesh’s home.

Shubham introduced himself. He told Ramesh that he is from the same town that he visited for selling toys. He told Ramesh they he liked his hand made toys and then offered him a deal for making a hundred toys in a week. And he offered to buy them at a ten percent higher rate.

Ramesh considered his offer for a moment. It was a pretty good deal. He would not have to go to town for selling toys. And he will be making more money. At best he could sell four to five toys in a day usually. This was a pretty good offer for Ramesh. Not only that. Shubham had told him that he would be increasing the order pretty soon.

Ramesh agreed to partner with Shubham. And he promised that he will deliver him a hundred toys within a week. Shubham had already paid him for all the 100 toys in advance.

Days passed by. Ramesh worked day and night to make as many toys as he could in a day so that he could finish all the hundred toys before the weekends.

Ramesh, with the help of his wife, finished making all the hundred toys a day before the week ended.

The next day came. Shubham had told him that he would be here that day to collect all the toys.

But the day passed. Nobody came. Not even the day after. Not even the next day. And just like that, the entire week ended. But Shubham didn’t come to collect the toys for which he had made full payment in advance.

This really puzzled Ramesh. So he decided to visit the town the next day. Shubham had mentioned a rough idea about where he lived. And Ramesh decided to follow that trail and try to find him.

The next day Ramesh reached the town with the bag full of all the hundred toys and a couple more. He inquired about the place called ‘Vidhya Baal Bihar…’ something like that. After inquiring from a couple of people, he was directed to the only place named like this ‘Baal Vidhya Bihar Palace for Orphans’. A little shocked, he reached the orphanage. At the gate, he asked to a guard about whether he knew someone named Shubham?

The guard looked at him for a moment, then without saying another word he took him to the reception, and pointed one of his hands to the photo frame on the wall.

Ramesh, following his hand, looked at the photo and froze for the moment. He skipped a couple of breaths. He was looking at the photo of Shubham with a garland wrapped over the frame.

Once Ramesh got hold of him, he told everything to the person at the reception- about how he met Shubham, about the deal of toys, etc. The person at reception told him that this orphanage is run by Mr. Shubham and his family. And he also told him that Shubham baba had said something about a hundred new toys he had ordered for the kids of orphanage. But unfortunately, he passed away a week before in a hospital.

The receptionist told him that Shubham had a serious accident by a truck the day he returned from the village. For a week he was in the hospital. But he couldn’t make it. And the receptionist also apologized from Ramesh that Shubham baba couldn’t keep up his deal with him.

Ramesh couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He didn’t know that Shubham was buying all these toys for the kids at his orphanage, and not for selling them for higher prices somewhere. He felt really sorry for Shubham. ‘It is rare to find such good people these days,’ he told himself.

Ramesh didn’t know what to say or do.

So he just took the bag full of all the toys and gave it to the receptionist. He told him that these are the toys Shubham had ordered. They are more than a hundred. But that’s the least I can do to honor your Shubham baba. He told the receptionist to distribute these toys among all the kids.

And then he took one last look at Shubham’s photo on the wall, and left the orphanage.