by Kartikeya Ghimire
That day, all the boys and girls were looking at Kamala’s new pen with wonder. Nayan too threw off his bag hastily and went near Kamala to watch her pen. The pen was golden in colour. It was a splendid pen that shone brightly. Nayan was envious of the pen. He made up his mind to steal it away.
That day, all the friends were amazingly looking at Kamala’s new golden pen.
Nayan carefully looked left and right. He started thinking of a way to steal the pen. After a while, the school bell rang: ting-tang! It was time for interval. Some of Nayan’s friends went out of the class for snacks, while a few of them continued to stay back in the classroom. Nayan continued to sit on his bench silently. He was waiting for a time when there would be no one in the room.
Finally, six of Nayan’s classmates went out. Now, only Radha and Rita were there inside the classroom, besides Nayan. Nayan rose from his bench and started moving towards Kamala’s bench. Rita stole a look at him, silently.
Nayan sat back on his own seat. He looked left and right and looked quite restless. From his bench, he started peeping out of the window. He could see his friends run freely on the ground, outside. They were happily engaged in their own playful games.
When Radha and Rita showed no sign of going out of the classroom even after a long time, Nayan himself rose to move out. In the meantime, Asha started shouting to everyone, “Friends; come out all of you to see a sight! Some short-built actors of films have come to our school.”
All the students went out with curious eyes. Radha and Rita too put their copies and pens back into their bags and went out. Only now, Nayan found an opportunity, and so, he secretly moved to Kamala’s bench. He unzipped her bag and took out the golden pen. While doing so, he felt that every single strand of hair on his body was rising. He then went running at a great speed and entered the toilet.
Upon entering the toilet, Nayan started sweating all through. For quite some time, he looked at the golden pen from all sides. Thinking that the pen was now his property, his heart leaped up. But soon, he was worried to think where he should hide the pen. He resolved that he should not keep it in the pocket of his pants. If his friends saw it, he would be trapped. Putting it inside his shirt too would do no good. What would happen if the button got unfastened?
For quite a long time, Nayan was restless considering where he should hide the pen. At last, he remembered his shoes. He took out a shoe, put the pen inside and tried to wear the shoe again. But then, he could not insert his foot inside it. He, who was happy until a while ago on possessing the pen, was now suddenly driven into fear and trouble, because he found no way to hide it. At one time, he even thought he should take it back and put into Kamala’s bag. But he found it equally difficult. How could he do it, hiding from his friends’ eyes? If his friends asked what he was carrying, he could be caught stealing.
When all these thoughts started bothering his mind, Nayan sat in the toilet in position of defecating. He now decided that he should drop the pen down the toilet hole. Restless for a long time, Nayan now started feeling stomach ache. He unzipped his pants and prepared to defecate. When he was just about to drop the pen into the hole, he saw his long, white socks. He laughed out silently; a new trick was with him at last.
When he had cleaned himself, Nayan smiled once again. He wore back his pants singing ‘la, la, la!’ and thrust the pen inside one of his socks. Only now, he was in the spirit of a warrior who had just won a battle.
Nayan came out of the lavatory. When he came out, a friend who was waiting for his turn to enter paid him a squinted look. Nayan made a pretext, “My stomach is upset today,” and rushed to the classroom, and silently sat on his bench.
“Ding-dong” rang the bell again. A teacher entered the class to teach. Nayan’s heart started throbbing very fast. At times, he would take his hand down his legs and feel the pen inside his sock. He did so at intervals to make sure that the pen was still there. He was not at all able to focus his mind on the lesson. At one time, he even went underneath his desk to make sure that the pen was really in its place. He sat straight on his bench silently only after he trembled at his teacher’s voice.
In a while, when Kamala found no pen to copy the stuffs her teacher had written on the whiteboard, she exclaimed, “Sir, I lost my new pen!” and started crying, standing from her seat. She continued, “It was a pen my father brought from abroad; now he will scold me for losing it. What should I do now, Sir?” She was sobbing with anxiety.
Radha and Asha rose from their benches and went near Kamala. They caught her hands and started consoling her, telling her not to cry. But Kamala listened to no one. She continued to weep.
The teacher shouted at the class in anger, “Who’s the naughty one to steal Kamala’s pen?” He turned his red eyes to every corner of the class and asked everyone. As for Nayan, he started feigning to read his book, unable to look on the face of this teacher.
“That person is not merely naughty, Sir! That’s a rogue,” said Radha, shouting from her desk.
“Fie! How could we call such a person a friend?” said Asha, standing from her seat. She was even more furious.
On hearing his close friend Asha also speak that way, Nayan was startled. Many thoughts occurred to his mind now. He started regretting the theft. At one point, he thought of standing from his position and confessing everything to the class and returning the pen to Kamala. Yet, he could not stand, thinking that all his friends might call him a thief, and stop speaking with him from the next day. He sat down on his place. He could not tell the class that he had stolen the pen.
Soon the school was over. Nayan took quick steps and went home. He saw Asha walking alone at a distance. Deciding that he would now tell the reality to Asha, he ran fast and came near her. Asha looked at Nayan and paid a quick smile. Nayan too smiled back. He was willing to say something to Asha. Starting the conversation, Asha said, “Nayan, what a boring incident took place in our class today, didn’t it? Poor Kamala; how badly she cried! I won’t tolerate, even if it’s my closest friend who has stolen the pen. I hate the thieves very much; I think you too do the same. I probably think so because my father is a policeman, you know!” Asha said with a deep sigh.
Upon hearing this much from Asha, Nayan was completely exhausted. He could not speak anything. He could not gather the energy to take any suggestion from her.
Nayan bade Asha ‘bye-bye’ and went homeward. On seeing Nayan come home with a sad face, while he used to come home happy all the time, his mother asked, “What’s wrong with you, my boy?”
“Nothing, Mom,” said Nayan, trying to divert the issue. Nayan could not eat well, as so many thoughts came into his mind and bothered him. He went to bed quite restlessly; yet he could not sleep for a long time.
Nayan finally had a nap at midnight, when he woke up from a dream shouting, “I’m not a thief; I’m not a thief!”
His mother took Nayan into her arms and said with love, “Child; if you have made a mistake, correct it. Think yourself for the ways to correct the mistakes. If you cannot, tell me; I will see how I can help you.”
Upon waking up in the morning too, Nayan thought for a long time. His mother took him o the school.
When Nayan reached the school the following day, all his schoolmates had gathered in the ground for Morning Prayer. He hurriedly ran into his classroom. He looked here and there; there was no one inside. All were busy singing morning prayers in the ground. When he was sure there was no one there, Nayan secretly took out the pen. He also tore a page off his copy, wrote something on it, and together with the chit, placed the pen inside Kamala’s bag. Then, he joined his friend to the prayer, running.
The bell for the first period rang. The class-teacher entered the classroom. Kamala informed with joy, “Sir, I found my pen. Oh, what a good friend he happens to be; he wrote ‘sorry’ on a bit of paper and put my pen back into my bag.”
Then, all the students said, the one who had replaced the pen and corrected the mistake was a good person.
Nayan also added his ‘yes’ to what his friends said. Yet, he had learned an important lesson. Thereafter, in his life, he would never…
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Translated by Mahesh Paudyal