My Musings on Life, Poetry and Short Stories

In these days of Multi-Crore scams, phishing, credit card frauds etc one would shudder to think of losing their Wallet, especially when it is containing three of your priced credit cards, expensive cell phone with all the private addresses and good amount of cash. Well if wishes were horses even fools would fly, right. Imagine yourself going on a Family Vacation with the entire Family including 2 kids, load of baggage and 4 flights to change. Yes we went to Florida, Disney World, in June from Texas for a week of fun at Disney Land. While we enjoyed the visit so much we were little prepared for the incident that took place on the last day of our visit at Animal Kingdom. After watching a film in the Auditorium we left the place and when we reached the Bus Terminal, we realised that we had lost our wallet with credit cards, money and cell phone. Despite a dash to the place and searching it thoroughly again and again we could not find the wallet. We approached the Lost and Found office at the gate and lodged a formal complaint with very little hope of getting it back because 3 credit cards, money and a pricey cell phone is too good a haul to douse any tinge of honesty in a finder's mind! We totally forgot the incident and were getting back to our chores in Texas. A week after we returned we received a manila cover containing the Wallet, with all the contents intact and a sweet little note from the Lost & Found office wishing us all the best and enquiring about how we liked the visit. We were overwhelmed by their courtesy and the exemplary act of Honesty shown by the faceless finder of our Wallet.

It has become the favourite subject of everyone nowadays to talk about and voice their "Expert" opinion on the subject! It is like a virus and has its presence almost everywhere in this vast universe. The interesting thing about this despicable disease is the fact that both the exploiter and the victim are equally responsible for its existence. Those who speak so much against it are the ones who would not mind resorting to it in their day-to-day activities for getting some of their jobs done either expeditiously or economically. Many of us indulge in it just because we donot have the patience to wait for the normal processing time or fear of delay from a greedy official. If every one of us decide not to resort to this pernicious evil, come what may, the chances are that this poison ivy may begin to wither slowly. There is an old Adage in Tamil, which runs as follows:

திருடராய் பார்த்து திருந்தாவிட்டால் திருட்டை ஒழிக்க முடியாது!

Which means that "Unless the Thieves choose to reform themselves and become noble, no Law can eradicate thieving". We should learn to stick to our principles and stand firm against any form of extortion and fight this demon. Just making speeches or cursing will be of no avail in dealing with this monster. Take a vow today that atleast you will not be a party to propagate this evil and abide by it.