Lesson

I have been suspended pending enquiry. For  misappropriation. I work as a clerk in the bank. Initially it just started as a game. I wanted to see if I could surreptitiously open an account. And when I did, I was exhilarated. I slowly started scouting for inactive and dormant accounts. I was careful in choosing my victims. Old people, who wouldn’t use technology to do their banking. Surprising, there were a lot of them who fit the bill. I started transferring small amounts of money from these accounts. To avoid suspicion I opened a few more accounts. It was a big branch and there were many accounts that I could lay my hands on. When I found out that I was not going to be found out, I grew a bit more confident and started transferring more money more frequently. In case  you were wondering, this would not be possible without some inside help for which I had to offer a cut from the proceeds. One day a customer had come to close his account. I had transferred some money from his account only the previous day. Unfortunately I was not in the bank that day; otherwise I would have been able to cover this up.  When the shit hit the ceiling, everybody else involved conveniently feigned ignorance. One thing led to another, and here I am under suspension.

When I came home, wondering how I was to break the news of my suspension to my wife, my son came jumping to me. He had never seen me come so early. ’Papa, he said jubilantly, I have come first in class. He is studying in the 5^th grade. He was holding the answer sheets in his hand. I was in no mood to share his joy. His happiness was explicable. I had promised to get him a Playstation if he came first in class. I perfunctorily took the papers from his hand. He had got 100 percentiles in a couple of subjects, around 90’s in a few more and in the last one, 92% was struck and in its place the teacher had marked 83 + 1  totaling to  84% and ‘honesty’ written near the 1. I looked at him enquiringly. He jumped up and sat on my lap.

‘Papa, I had not written the answer for a 10 mark question, but my teacher had totaled up wrongly and given me 94’, he said. ‘I pointed out the mistake to the teacher and she gave me a additional mark for doing that’, he added.

‘Would you have still got the first rank if you had only 83 ?’, I asked knowing fully well that  the boys always tally up their marks before the rank card is given out.

‘No Papa, I would have been 2^nd but now I am joint 1^st’, he said. ‘

But, didn’t you think about losing your rank and also your Playstation before telling the teacher about the error?, I asked incredulously.

‘Yes Papa, I knew that I would get only the 2^nd rank, but luckily the teacher gave me an extra mark, he said gleefully. ‘Grandpa always says, it is not right to take what doesn’t belong to us, he added as an after-thought.

Tears ran down my cheeks.