The Brave Boys

Once upon a time, there lived two boys Ram and Shyam. They lived in a village called Champavat. Ram and Shyam were best friends and always played and studied together. Both Ram and Shyam's parents were farmers in the village and were always happy with what they had. One day Ram's father told that 'Ram go to the woods and get some wood from the fir tree because we need to build a new fence around our farm and remember to come home before nightfall.' Ram said, 'Right away father but can I also take Shyam with me?' 'Okay, you can take Shyam with you.' Ram ran to Shyam's house and was welcomed by his father. He said to Shyam, 'Shyam would you like to come with me to the woods for collecting wood?' Shyam said, 'First let me ask my father.' He asked his father and his father agreed but put the same condition that to come before night. Ram said, 'I forgot to take the tools so do you have ax and spade with you?' Shyam replied, 'Yes, I have spade and ax in my toolshed I'll get it right away.' Shyam brought the tools and they left for the woods. It was 9:30 a.m when they left. Passing through one of the roads they saw the new Police Station that had just started a few days before.

Its paint was shining like gold and on the notice board, there were pictures of some of the most deadly and big criminals. But one image was the biggest and below it was written in bold and large handwriting Mangal Singh. Ram and Shyam stopped and stared at the picture it was also written that if anybody catches Mangal Singh they would get a reward of rupees 50,000. They both wondered if he was such a big criminal that if we catch him we get 50,000 it's a very huge amount indeed. By the time they were staring at the picture, a police officer came out. The police officer said, 'Kids what are you doing here?' The children replied, 'Nothing we were just passing by and saw this new police station so we were just looking at how nice and magnificent the police station is by the way who is this Mangal Singh, and what has he done?' The police officer replied, 'He is a very big criminal. The whole city is after him and trying to find him and he has done many crimes from murder to kidnapping to robbery, rape, and whatnot.

The whole city is terrified of him and the intelligence report says that he is currently hiding in our village and planning to do something big. We are trying to catch him before he does something and we hope we catch him.' The children said, 'Thank you Sir for your precious time and informing about this rascal.' Ram and Shyam again started walking to the forest. At 11 a.m. they reached the forest and started looking for some good wood to chop. It was 1 p.m and they had not found enough wood and the sun was very high. Shyam said, 'Let's rest for a while under that shady tree and after some time will continue our work.' They kept their chopped wood beside them and rested under the tree. They didn't know that they had fallen asleep as they were very tired. After 3 hours at 4 p.m, they woke up and started searching for wood. Suddenly they heard a faint sound galloping hearing this Ram said, 'Did you hear a galloping sound?' 'Yes I heard it there must be some horse roaming in the forest.' But the sound was increasing as if the horse was coming towards them. Shaym said, 'I think the horse is coming towards us.' 'Ya, I also think that the horse is coming towards us.' Replied Ram.

Suddenly they heard the sound of men talking and shooting guns. The boys got terrified and decided to hide in the bushes. Slowly the horses were visible to the boys. There were approximately seventy horses and on the horses were fifty fierce-looking men with long beards and mustaches with rifles on their shoulders. There were about 20 huge bags full of gold, jewelry, and precious stones. Shyam whispered, 'Ram I think we should get out of here, I think they are bandits.' 'If we try to get out of here they will spot us and probably kill us so it is better to stay where we are and I also think that they are bandits and looks like they have robbed someone wealthy. Wait for a while I have read that a group of bandits always has its leader who is the ringleader and a mentor for other bandits, I think this group also has a leader and will come soon.' And as Ram said the leader came in front of all the bandits. He was a very fierce and muscular man with a short beard and long curled hair. He had covered his face with a black mask and had two rifles, one pistol, and a pocket knife with him. Ram was not able to see his face clearly as it was covered.

After a while, the leader went near a big rock boulder and chanted, "Open the door O great one!" He said this so loudly that both the boys heard it. After this was chanted the boulder was shifted more than 20 men pushed the boulder aside and the pathway was clear. All the bandits along with the leader entered the cave and as they all had entered the cave 20 men pushed the boulder and the entrance of the cave was closed. Ram said, 'Shyam, we have to catch these bandits in some way or other.' 'I agree with you Ram I think we should go back home and call our family for help.' 'No, it might be too late and it might also happen that they will leave the cave. We have to do what is to be done.' 'Okay, so what to do?' 'First of all, we will wait till night.' 'But our family members told us to come before night and you are telling us we have to wait till night! I am a little scared also.' 'Don't worry nothing will happen to us and why fear when Ram is here!' They waited till night. It was 8 p.m when Ram said, 'Now it's time to start our plan.' 'What is the plan exactly?' While Ram was explaining the plan to Shyam in the village both Ram and Shyam's family was worried as it was 8 p.m and still, they had not returned so they decided to seek help from the police. Both the families went to the police station and reported missing reports of the boys. They gave Ram and Shyam's photo to the police and the police instantly deployed a search party to go to the forest and search for the boys.

On the other hand, both the boys were ready with the plan and were waiting to implement it. The cave was guarded by 5 men. Shyam was given the job to distract the guards by making animal sounds. Shyam was an expert in making animal sounds so first he made a sound of a lion, then a deer and then an owl. The guards were easily distracted and this gave Ram a passage to enter. He chanted, "Open the door O great one!" and twenty men opened the door. By the time the door was being opened, he knocked down one bandit and quickly wore his clothes, and took the gun as a disguise. While he entered Shyam did the same and entered the cave. After the cave was closed the guards which were distracted came back to their position. Inside the cave, all bandits were celebrating their loot. The leader was sitting on a comparatively higher chair which the bandits referred to as "throne" The boys went to the place where all the loot was kept and slowly lifted each box of loot and walked with pin-drop silence to the boulder. There they told the guard, 'Chief has ordered us to take today's loot outside and keep.' After saying this the cave was opened and they took the box of gold outside and repeated the process 10 to 15 times. By 11 p.m all the boxes were out of the cave. All the bandits were sleeping tired after the party. When the boys were taking one of the boxes outside, Shyam noticed the face of the chief similar. Mangal Singh's image flashed into his mind. He said to Ram,' Ram the chief of bandits is none other than Mangal Singh the most wanted criminal of the town!' After Shyam told Ram also looked at the image of Shyam and realized that it was indeed Mangal Singh. Now that all the boxes were outside they decided to sit down for a while.

Even the guards standing outside the cave were fast asleep. When they were sitting they heard a faint sound of someone screening, 'Ram where are you. Shyam where are you.' The boys instantly got up but they didn't know how to tell them that they were here because if they would go there were chances the bandits would wake up so started thinking of an idea to escape. Suddenly an idea came into Shyam's mind he told Ram, 'Ram let us fire these rifles so they will know that we are here.' 'But because of the noise of the rifles, the guards may wake up.' 'So what we'll go little ahead and fire.' 'Okay, let's do it.' So they went a little ahead loaded the gun and fired it three to four times as a distress signal. They were lucky that none of the guards had woke up. The police team searching for them heard the sound of firing and rushed in the direction from where the sound had come.

They found the boys and the group of bandits but they still didn't know who was the chief of the bandits. They called a larger team of police and armed force at this site. They planted dynamite near the rock boulder and blew up the rock. All the bandits were caught except Mangal Singh. As soon as he heard the explosion sound he tried to escape from the back end but Ram still had the rifle with him so he aimed at Mangal Singh's leg and shot on Mangal Singh's left leg injuring him severely. The boys got home safely. After 5 days the police department decided to give Ram and Shyam rupees 2,00,000 for their bravery and helping them capture the gang of bandits and especially Mangal Singh. Ram and Shyam donated rupees 1,00,000 to the poor and kept rest for themselves. A statue was made for the bravery of the boys.