Life Skills & Value Education – CLASS-V – UNIT- 2 Honesty

Dishonesty Never Pays

Kallu, a milkman by profession, was a very greedy and dishonest person. He lived in Rampur village. He had many cows and goats, enough to supply surplus milk to the whole village. But he was always dissatisfied and would think of tricks to earn more and more money. He used to mix oodles of water into milk so that he could not only sell milk in his own village but also in the nearby town. In this way, he sold milk for good profits and became very wealthy.

One day he was returning to his village after collecting his dues from the customers. He had collected almost thirty gold coins. Gloating over his dishonesty, he said to himself, “Great! These thirty gold coins are the fruit of my cleverness and the foolishness of these dumb-brains.”

He put them in a small bag which he kept in his pocket. On reaching home, as he put his hand in the pocket to get the bag, he was left shocked. The bag was not there. “May be, I dropped it on my way home. It must be lying there somewhere. I must

rush,” he muttered and rushed out of the door. He searched all over but couldn’t find his bag. Dejected, he went to a friend named Birju and told him his sad story. His friend was an honest and kind fellow. “Kallu! You look very tired. Don’t worry. Go home and take some rest. In the evening, I will go with you to report your loss at the police station,” said Birju consoling Kallu.

Kallu went back to his home.

Birju had a daughter who worked in a nearby village. She got late from work. When she returned from her errand, Kallu said, “Dear, what made you so late today? I was worried for you.”

“While returning from the work, I found a bag that contained thirty gold coins. I thought, its owner would come that way looking for it, so I waited. But nobody came,” replied the daughter and gave the bag full of gold coins to his father.

“Oh! A friend of mine has lost his bag of thirty gold coins today. These could be his only. I must take this bag to him. He would be very glad to see it,” replied Birju with great pleasure.

Immediately, he took that bag to Kallu.

“Kallu, here I have a surprise for you. Is this your money bag?” asked Birju to Kallu. Kallu just jumped to take the bag as he saw it. “Yes! Yes! It is,” he shouted.

Kallu snatched the bag from Birju’s hands and started counting coins hurriedly. Instead of thanking Birju, he said to him, “It has only thirty gold coins. I had forty gold coins. I believe your daughter must have taken ten of my gold coins. You must get them to me.”

Kallu was clearly trying to trap Birju into giving him more money.

“But you had mentioned earlier that you lost thirty gold coins,” said Birju in disbelief. “Don’t try to fool me. I never said so. I only said, forty gold coins. You and your daughter are thieves and I will take you both to the panchayat (village court),” said Kallu angrily.

Next day Kallu made false complaint about Birju and his daughter, who were then called to the panchayat.

“Where did you find the bag? How many gold coins were in it?” asked the panchs (judges) to the girl.

“I found it on my way from work. It had thirty gold coins, which I gave to my father. My father gave it to Kallu, considering that these are the thirty gold coins that he lost,” replied the girl sincerely without any fear or hesitation.

“She is a liar. It had forty gold coins. I had lost forty of them,” shouted Kallu, pointing finger at the girl.

After listening to everything, the sarpanch (the head judge) said, “Kallu claims to have lost forty gold coins. On the other hand, this bag has thirty coins only. Clearly, it does not belong to Kallu.”

Kallu’s jaw dropped at the sarpanch’s statement. He started jumping up and down. Seeing his money going forever, he interrupted, “No! I was lying. I lost thirty gold coins only. I lied so that I could get more money”

To his dismay, the panchayat didn’t pay any heed to him. “If anyone reports to have found forty gold coins, I will call you,” said the sarpanch to Kallu.

The sarpanch said to the girl, “Keep this money with you. If someone comes looking for them, I will send him to you.”

Kallu saw Birju who said nothing but his face showed that all his trust on Kallu was diminished. Kallu lost his friendship with Birju forever.

Kallu lost what belonged to him. That day he learnt the lesson that Dishonesty never pays.

Dishonesty is like a disease. Lies are like weeds. Our inner conscience stops us each time we lie. When we suppress our inner voice, we are being dishonest to ourselves.

Slowly, our dishonesty becomes a habit and ruins us.

• Kallu tried to trap his friend and lost his trust and friendship.

When someone cheats us for selfish gains, we lose our trust on that person. In the same way, when we are dishonest to someone, we lay our steps towards ruining

the trust that others have in us.

❖ Remember: It takes two seconds to tell the truth and it costs nothing. A lie takes time and it costs everything.

Birju and his daughter stood firmly on their truth when Kallu laid upon false allegations on them.

Truth and Honesty give us strength. It makes us free from any fear. It helps us to stand for what is right. On the other hand, dishonesty makes us fearful, aggressive, impatient and greedy.

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