Pick Pocket

Subbamma was going to buy some groceries from the shop nearby to her house. She was making the list in her mind of the necessary things to buy.

There was a little rush as it was a weekend. She waited for the rush to subside and till then she thought of chatting with her neighbour and ordered tea for both of them. Subbamma began complaining to her neighbour of how her maid had left the job and had started doing the flower business near the temple. As she was requesting her neighbour to search for a new maid, she heard the shopkeeper calling out for her.

Subbamma took her last sip of tea and started saying the list of groceries, which took a while to be packed. Shopkeeper calculated everything and told the amount summed up to Rs. 450. Subbamma took out her purse from the blouse in order to take out the money. She just got a few coins from her purse. She looked deep inside her purse, but to her dismay, it was empty. Subbamma told the shopkeeper that may be she had forgotten the money at home and told him that she would get the money from home soon.

So saying, she took the bag containing grocery and left the shop. Meanwhile, Subbamma called out for her maid's son, Ramu, who was passing by to carry the bag. Subbamma always used to take tuition to Ramu, with the help of which, he used to stand first in the class. Ramu came inside Subbamma's house and kept the bag.

Subbamma offered Ramu some juice, which he refused and ran out of the house holding some new notes of 100 in his hand. On seeing this, Subbamma got the shock of her life, how could Ramu steal money from her purse. Without even thinking twice, she called out for Ramu to stop. She pulled his ears tightly and "Amma" cried out Ramu in pain.

Ramu was shocked to see Subbamma's behaviour. Subbamma slapped him on his cheek and snatched the money from his hand. She was deaf to Ramu's pleading. He was telling her that the money was given to him by his mother.

Subbamma bet him again and told him not to come again to her house. She banged the door on Ramu's face and started muttering that such people should always be kept far away and that she would never take tuitions again to Ramu.

Subbamma's grand daughter came running towards her and told her that she was hungry. Subbamma went inside the kitchen to prepare something for her.

By the time Subbamma came back from the kitchen, all the grocery items were on the floor and Subbamma saw her granddaughter eating the biscuits. She scolded her granddaughter and stumbled on the bag. She bent down to pick up the bag. To her surprise, there lay the five new notes of 100s, which she supposedly saw in Ramu's hands. She picked them up and went inside to take

out the notes from the purse which she had snatched from Ramu's hands. Tears rolled down her cheeks uncontrollably.

Subbamma wiped her tears and fed her granddaughter. She headed to the shop and paid him Rs 450 and came back home thinking of how to return the money to Ramu.

In the evening, Subbamma saw her maid coming with Ramu. Subbamma started shivering and was sure that Ramu would have told his mother everything. Subbamma wiped sweat off her forehead and called them inside because she didn't want her neighbours to know of how she had blamed and hit Ramu for no mistake of his.

Ramu bent down and touched Subbamma's feet. Ramu's mother, Subbamma's old maid, told Subbamma that as today was his birthday, they came to seek her blessings. Subbamma controlled her emotions somehow and blessed Ramu. She told them to wait for a while and went inside.

Ramu's mother started talking and Subbamma could overhear that Ramu had lost Rs 500 which she had saved for his birthday and had started scolding Ramu very badly. Subbamma had a huge relief because Ramu had not told anything about the incident. Immediately, she came running from inside and told her not to scold Ramu. However, this did not stop her from scolding Ramu. Subbamma handed over an envelope to Ramu's mother.

Ramu's mother refused it and told her that she cannot repay the education that Subbamma was giving to Ramu in the form of tuitions. Both Ramu and his mother left Subbamma behind forcing her to think as to how Subbamma had become indebtable to Ramu, holding the envelope with five Rs 100 notes, which were smiling at Subbamma.......