Sukvir’s Secret
Once upon a time, there was a village named Dalopur. It was named after the chief of the village-Nayak Dalo. In the village was a beautiful temple. A rich merchant Sukhvir had moved into the village and everyone was talking about how rich he was but nobody had seen him. They only knew he was rich because he had sent expensive gifts to everyone in the village.
Nayak Dalo was at his house. And the house was very beautifully decorated with carvings of floral patterns which had the most minute details. Nayak Dalo was very worried. He was thinking about Sukhvir but not about how rich Sukhvir was. He was thinking about what his friend from the city had written to him about. Nayak Dalo’s friend had written “Hello, Dalo. I wrote to you because Sukhvir was here a few days ago. He said he will come to your village. I wanted to warn you that wherever Sukhvir has gone, there has been a trail of robberies and even though the police have searched him, they could not find any proof. Take care, Ramesh.” The whole day passed with him thinking about what should be done. He went near Sukhvir’s house and examined it and he also examined the gift he had got from Sukhvir which was a beautiful golden mantelpiece shaped like a swan but he did not find anything and went to bed. The next morning, when many people came to Nayak Dalo’s house to tell him that their houses had been robbed, he called for the Subedar (the village police). Nayak Dalo told him to investigate and see if he could find out if Sukhvir is the reason for the robbery. The Subedar least suspected Sukhvir because of his generous gifts but he said “ Okay I will go and spy at him at night. And he did. That night, the Subedar went and looked through Sukhvir window and saw find masked villains. Sukhvir was addressing all of them. He was only an old man. He said “Go and rob this whole village! With this loot, I will become richer than the Prime Minister! Ha ha ha ha ha ha! The people of this village are fooled so easily! What I am going to loot is much better than those silly gifts! We will leave this place tomorrow night!” The Subedar gasped. The masked villains came out of the house. When they saw the Subedar, they attacked him. When they came close, the Subedar saw that each of them was wearing a dark coloured dress — black, olive green, maroon, brown, and grey.
They tied him up to a tree. They were speaking in a very hissy voice to scare him. One of them said “ Lissssen! Do not tell our ssssssssecret to anyone! “ And all of them disappeared into the shadows of the night. Luckily, the Subedar had brought a knife with him so he easily cut open the rope then he ran to Nayak Dalo’s house to tell him all about Sukhvir’s plan. The Nayak was awake and waiting for the Subedar. He decided to catch Sukhvir red-handed. The next morning, when all the villagers came to Nayak Dalo’s house to tell him that their houses had been robbed, Nayak Dalo told them all that the Subedar had told him and also told them that everyone should guard the village boundaries at night. Then he called the police to take Sukhvir to jail.
At night, Sukhvir and the five masked villains were trying to leave the village with piles of money. They were being quiet as possible but it was of no use. The whole village pounced on the thieves and the police took them to jail. The police asked him why was he stealing money. Sukvir replied sulkily “ When I was young, people came and robbed our house. We caught them and I saw how rich they were. I decided that I will be rich like them and the idea of hard work did not appeal to me. So I started robbing people like them. ” The police did not know what to say to this so they told him that it was not a reason to steal and threw him in jail. Now the people of Dalopur feel very proud when they tell this story to a newcomer!
