The Tale Of A Hundred Rupee Note

A man named Bhimappa lived with his family in a village called Puttalli. Bhimappa was a big moneylender and also ran a usury business. When the poor people in the town needed money, they inevitably borrowed it from him without any other option. Bhimappa used to suck the blood of the poor by charging double interest on the loan given. If the borrower did not pay the interest within the stipulated time, he would confiscate the borrower's house. And until the debt was collected, he used to make them slaves in his garden. He was cruel and arrogant and had two children. One's name is Shamu, and the other's name is Somu. Shamu was his elder brother.

Shamu had the quality of a father; he beat someone's children, scolded teachers, and so on; one or another complaint came against him from the school and the village every day. But only Somu was the opposite of his elder brother. Somu could not bear the injustice of his father.

He always used to tell his father that he should not bother the poor like this because they are also human beings. Bimappa hated his young son, Somu, for arguing against him. He liked his eldest son very much because the eldest son, Shamu, was very fond of him, and he used to sing and praise him.

Once, Bhimappa counted the money given by someone and left it there on the table of his house. And he remembered that he had a work in town. Shamu, who was watching his father go out in his jeep, took out the hundred rupees in the bundle of that note and kept it in his pocket.

 Seeing this, Somu said that dear Brother should not steal like this, vachanakara Basavanna said in his vow not to steal, not to lie, it is in the school book, have you read it? "Didn't you read it in the school book?"

Hey....you are younger than me, learn to respect me, don't come to tell me all this, I took my father's money, why should I ask my father for that, Shamu said loudly and left.

Bhimappa, who had gone out, came home and saw the bundle of notes on the table. Again, no matter how much he counted, instead of fifty thousand rupees, there were only forty thousand nine hundred rupees. Even after counting ten times, one hundred rupees seemed less. 

Bimappa thought that all this could be done by his children and called them angrily.  He shouted angrily at them, "Hey, children, tell me which one of you stole that money, or both of you will be beaten."

Fearing that he would be punished if Somu told the truth, Shamu lied to his father that Somu had stolen the money.

Bhimappa became angry because the young son had been against him earlier and beat up Somu. somu pleads that he did not steal the money.        And he throws Somu out of the house without listening to his wife, who came to stop him. Somu was punished for a mistake he did not commit and left the town crying.

The day after this incident, Bhimappa was going near the town in his jeep to collect a debt from someone's shop.

Then he saw a boy near the shop handing a hundred rupee note to the shopkeeper and taking a cigarette from him. When the boy came out of the shop, Bhimappa realised that it was his elder son, Shamu. Bhimappa was very upset that Shamu had stolen that money. He left all his servants and searched for Somu in many places but could not find any trace of his son.

Bhimappa used to spend the day lamenting that he had thrown out his innocent son.

Once, when someone who had borrowed money from him came to return the money, he said to the Bhimappa, I saw your son; he is in Girisankara Matt in Shaktapur. He spoke to me nicely. He said, don't tell my father that I am here because I am studying the Vedas. I want to stay here and serve Swamiji. I have no intention of disturbing my father by coming to town. He begged me that whenever you come, please inform me about my family.

Hearing his words, tears flowed from Bhimappa's eyes. Bhimappa wished in his heart that his son should be happy despite everything. To atone for his mistake, he completely stopped his usury business and started helping the poor people.