Once upon a time, there lived a small shopkeeper who used to sell homemade chocolates. His name was Kushal. He was not satisfied with his life and had an itchy palm. He wanted to do something different, something big which could make him rich quickly. He had two children who were not much interested in chocolates. He wanted to make his kids interested in chocolates as selling chocolates was his family business. For this, he was always on the lookout for creating new flavors which his kids would like. He kept on experimenting in his small shop which was also his makeshift lab.
One day, he went to the lakeside for overnight camping with his family. The lake was situated deep inside a thick forest. While they were having a bonfire in the night, a very old person who resembled a saint, suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He told Kushal that he knew of a special tree that only grew in this forest and bore fruits only once in a hundred years. He further said that this year the tree had borne fruits. He then took one fruit out of his cloth bag and handed it over to Kushal. When Kushal’s gaze shifted back from the fruit to look at the old man, he found him disappeared into the deep dark forest.
The next day, Kushal was back and was sitting in his shop when he suddenly thought of the fruit. “Why not try making a new chocolate flavor out of this fruit?” Kushal wondered. In the evening after closing his shop, he took out the juice of the fruit and mixed it with the hot chocolate to make a new flavor. Before putting the mixture into the refrigerator, Kushal just dipped his index finger into the liquid chocolate and tasted it. “The taste is really awesome,” Kushal thought. When he was putting the tray inside the refrigerator, he heard a knock on the door. “Who could be there at this time?” he thought. Kushal opened the door and found Mr. Gupta, who owned the next shop, standing right in front of him. Mr. Gupta looked very surprised. Kushal asked Mr. Gupta the reason for his arrival but it seemed that Mr. Gupta couldn’t hear anything Kushal had said. In fact, he was able to hear Mr. Gupta murmuring, “Who opened the door and where has Kushal gone?”
Kushal was very puzzled and tried desperately to talk to Mr. Gupta, but he just couldn’t. He then suddenly happened to see a mirror that was hanging on a wall in his shop. He couldn’t find his reflection in the mirror! Kushal was shocked and perplexed. He pondered over the turn of events and concluded that it must have been that ‘special’ fruit he got from the saint last night which made him invisible. He then got worried and thought, “What to do next?” He then thought that his family would get concerned when they found him nowhere. He sent a message to his wife that he had to go out of town for a few days to attend the annual chocolatiers conference so that she wouldn’t be worried about his disappearance. Although, he felt a little guilty about lying to his family.
He came out of the shop and started walking on the street without knowing how to come out of this peculiar situation. He then thought to go back to the forest and hoped to meet the same saint and ask him to help him come out of this situation. He checked his wallet and realized that he needed to have some money for the journey, so he entered a bank. He went to the cashier who was busy in his work leaving a pile of cash on his table. On seeing this, Kushal's greed took over. He quickly picked the bundle of cash and came out. No one including the cashier noticed anything unusual. After coming out from the bank, Kushal started jumping with joy. His mischievous mind started thinking of other ways to become richer. He then entered a jewelry store and stole some gold and diamond ornaments, again without getting noticed or caught.
This continued for a few days. Kushal was quite happy with his new power. He was even able to spend his nights in 5-star hotels, sleeping for free in the rooms which were unoccupied. He also went to new places without spending on air tickets or worrying about passport and visas as he would just board a plane and reached different exotic destinations. The luxurious life he was living completely changed his way of thinking. He was not even bothered about coming back in the old form. In fact, he started worrying about losing his power one day. He had sent one more message to his family saying that he was going for a 3-month long chocolate-making training in Belgium.
Few more days passed like this. Kushal had now started becoming used to the new lifestyle. He started now thinking about using the money and gold he had stolen for purchasing other things. He always fancied big houses and expensive cars. He also started missing his family a lot. But for this, he needed to come back to his original form so that he could use his ill-gotten wealth to make his dreams come true. He thought that without showing off the luxuries to others and sharing them with the family, the money had no meaning!
He then convinced himself to go back to the forest to meet the saint in order to get his old life back. He quickly calculated in his mind that he had now enough wealth to live a luxurious life, although he was still not content somehow convinced himself to come back in his original form. On reaching the forest, Kushal directly went to the same spot where a few months ago he met the saint. But this time, he couldn’t find anyone there. He frantically searched the entire forest for 3 days but couldn’t spot a single soul. On the 3rd day, he found a woodcutter chopping a tree. Kushal enquired about the saint from the woodcutter and came to know that the saint had died a few days ago. All hell broke loose on Kushal on hearing this! He thought to himself that he could never come back in his original form and must spend his entire life being invisible.
While he was coming back, the woodcutter called out his name. Kushal was very surprised to hear his name and thought about how the woodcutter knows his name. The woodcutter then said to Kushal that when the Saint was ill and on the deathbed, he told the woodcutter that a man named Kushal would come after a few days asking about him. The saint had told the woodcutter that all of Kushal’s problems could be solved when he returned all the stolen money and gold. He also needed to sow the seed of the fruit he ate back into the soil of this forest.
Kushal was now regretting all his bad deeds and learned the lesson. With heavy heart, he returned all the cash and gold to the bank and jewelers the same way he had stolen. He then went back to his small shop, found the seed after a lot of searches, went back to the forest’s core, and sow the seed back into the soil. After sowing the seed, he felt thirsty and went to the same lake where he had had the picnic with his family. He bent down to take a handful of water. He could now see his reflection in the water of the lake. He started dancing with joy!
Kushal then came back to his home and met his family. His family was delighted to see him after a long time.
1 Year Later….
Kushal is now completely satisfied and content with his life. He works very hard and believes in earning money the right way. He has also created and filed a patent for a couple of new chocolate flavors which he invented with his children’s help who are now also helping in expanding the family business.
Written by:
Anwesha Chandra
(For the StoryWritingCompetition)
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