The Clever Shopkeeper

Art: Irene D'Cruz, 75, India

It was Diwali, the festival of lights.

The potters in the village delivered lamps made from brown, red, and black clay to a shop in the town centre. The artists carefully coloured them in bright colours.

A salesgirl called Namita then arranged them on the shelves of the shop for display. The shop also sold other items of decoration, stationary, and snacks.

Today, however, most customers shopped for rangoli – the powder used for making designs on the floor, thoran – door buntings, electric fairy lights, and clay lamps.

Namita took the orders and packed the items carefully in paper bags or cardboard boxes. Then she made the bill for the purchases. People queued up to place their orders.

“Give me three hundred clay lamps” said a well-dressed lady to Namita.

“Big or small, madam?” asked Namita.

“Big” replied the lady.

“Which colour, madam? We have red, blue, green, yellow, and multicoloured” informed Namita.

“I will take the multicoloured” said the lady.

“That will be nine hundred rupees, madam” said Namita as she busied herself to pack the lamps in a cardboard box.

Once done, she lifted up the box to hand it over to the lady.

Unfortunately, the box was too heavy. As soon as Namita lifted it up, the base of the box broke and all the lamps cracked on the floor in a big multicoloured dusty heap.

“OH NO!!!” lamented Namita.

“OH No!!” said the lady.

“Oh No! Oh No!” echoed all the people in the queue.

“OH NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!” shouted a fat gentleman who was observing from a distance. He rushed to Namita’s side, gave her a hundred rupees, and said,

“Oh you poor child, you have made a big loss for the shop owner today. Here, take this money to repay him. I am sure the other people here will feel sympathy for you.”

Namita quietly took the money from the gentleman and set about to tidy up the mess.

The other people in the queue also gave her some money and left saying they would come to the shop after some time.

The lady who had placed the order for the three hundred lamps stayed back to help Namita.

While they cleaned up, the lady said,

“Namita, you are so fortunate today. If that gentleman and the others had not helped you today, it would be difficult for you to repay the shop owner when he would find out about the broken lamps.”

“Madam,” said Namita, looking up at the lady with a smile, “That gentleman who helped me is the owner of this shop.”

The lady was very impressed by the cunning business sense of the shop owner.

(Retold with a twist)