Even though the story isn’t that old, whenever I think about it, I feel it just happened yesterday. 

When I got home from work that day, Aashima ran up to me and told, "Mommy called. She, Daddy, Mamuni(my sister), and Rocky(my brother-in-law), are coming tomorrow. They'll be here by 12:30 in the afternoon. I'll cook the mutton gravy for them. Go and bring some na maa..? You won't have time as you'll be off to the office soon in the morning."

Dad (my father) loves mutton gravy so much and now he's got a son-in-law (Rocky), who has the same taste as he has.

I understood Aashima. She often does that. She could have told me for the mutton before I got home. But now she says because she wanted to go out with me to spend some time in the name of the mutton shopping. She knows that even if I am tired, I never refuse to go out with her. I love these little gestures of her. 

I said, "Get ready. Let's go to the market and get some mutton and we'll roam a little too. My Aashima was happy because I can see her face brighten up as she listened to me. After a while, we both left for the Forum mall.

We walked around for a while and grabbed everything on our grocery list. But when I put my hand in my pocket, I couldn't find my wallet. Probably I left it at home while coming out in a hurry. I found a Rs 2,000 note in my left pocket. But there was nothing to worry about. All the things we held would not be worth 2,000. I sent Aashima to the front and stood in the line to pay the amount. 

As soon as I went to pay, I lost my balance. I had my phone in my right hand with the 2000 rupee note. My note fell on the ground while saving the phone. There was a man in front of me who just finished his purchase, slowly bent down and picked up my 2000 note before I moved forward to pick it up from the ground.

"Wow. What a good man. He definitely has good education and mercy" - I thought. I reached out and thanked him for picking up the note for me. As I asked for my money, what he said to me was quite astonishing - "Whatever is on the floor, whoever gets it, is his!"

May be Ashima saw the incident. Everyone behind me and those around me looked at me in amazement and disbelief, talking to each other about what had just happened.

Standing there for a moment, I tried to evaluate myself. Now, by the grace of God, this 2000 is not a big deal for me, but what would be his situation if there was someone else in my place? I wanted to do justice to myself. I gave up my purchase because I had no way to pay (since I forgot to bring my wallet). I thought it was nothing but injustice. 

With that in mind, I moved on to teach that man a lesson. Apparently Aashima understood my mind that’s why she too started following the man to the car park and I followed her. I felt that the closest people to the line came after us, seeing both of us following the man. Maybe they were curious about what was going to happen.

As I was getting closer to the man, I started asking for the money, but the man disobeyed me just as I was invisible to him.

Just as he approached his car, and took the car keys out of his pocket to open his trunk, he slowly put his two shopping bags on the floor. Suddenly Aashima came up from my behind me and picked up those two shopping bags and started running. I, too, understood her intentions and began to chase her. The audience began to applaud.

I slowed down my self and looked back. I saw that the man who thought he was very "SMART" was very angry. He kept standing by his car in the parking lot without following us. I told Ashima to stop and shouted at the man, "Whatever is on the floor, whoever gets it, is his!"

Hearing me, the man drove away out of anger. I turned to Aashima and started laughing. She too couldn't stop laughing. I realized that my wife had taken my revenge in a strange way, and I was very proud of her. I would say that when all this happened, we were both equally scared, and nervous, but then we both laughed our hearts out.

After reaching home when we opened the bag, it was worth more than Rs.2,000. I still don't remember exactly but some of them were

-  2 kg of mutton

-  1 kg of Rohi fish

-  2 kg of cheese and yogurt

-  3 loaf of whole-grain bread

-  6 packet of macaroni with white shite sauce.

-  3 bottles of red wine

-  2 jars of strawberry jam

-  2 kg of washing powder and so on...


The next day, on the dinner table, everyone laughed as they heard the story. I asked Aashima, "How did you come up with that tit for tat idea?"

"No, I was not intended to take his shopping bags. I thought he would come to us saying sorry and return our money. But he didn't. I just wanted to teach him a lesson. I succeed and in the end, he learned it." She said and laughed. 

Even today, when we both remember that day, I am wondering - were we both aware of what's going to happen, or were we revengeful?