The story is of a young boy when he was in fifth standard at a government school in Kambelpur, now called Atak. On one day, he was carrying four rupees in his pocket to pay his school fees.
When he got to school, he found out that the teacher who was to collect fees, Master Ghulam Mohammed, was on leave. He carried the four rupees for fees the entire day. But once he was out of school, the coins began to speak.
The Coins Began to Talk and then Started to Clamour
That day, as the boy stepped out of school, the coins began to talk. One coin told him that he should go and buy hot jalebis with it. The coin urged the boy to spend it as money was meant to be spent. The boy answered the coins that he was a good boy and the coins should not be misguiding him. He told the coins that he was well fed at home and buying anything from the shops would be a sin. He also told the coins that the money was meant for his fees.
The coins didn’t appreciate the argument given by the young boy. They, therefore, all began to talk at the same time and made a great clamouring sound. They made such noise that passers by began to stare at the boy. The boy closed them tight in his fist. They were silent for some time. A little later, the boy loosened his fist and the coins again began to lure him. The coins tempt him by saying that he could pay his fees with scholarship money.
The Boy Begins to Think About the Jalebis and Finally Gave In
The boy knew that what the coins were telling him was not right, but he thinks that they were not wrong either. The boy begins to think about the hot, fresh jalebis full of sweet sugar. He was tempted, but he was also weighing the entire situation. He came from a well-to-do family and had enjoyed a considerable prestige. He had also enjoyed a certain status in his class. Masterji had often asked him to beat the other boys in the class. Eating jalebis in the middle of the bazaar was not easy for him. So, he clenched his fist again and came back home.
The boy could not bear the noise created by the coins. He finally gave in to their wish. Barefoot he rushed to the bazaar and asked the halwai to weigh him jalebis worth a rupee. The halwai opened a whole newspaper and heaped a pile of a jalebis on it. He had hardly gathered the heap of jalebis when he saw his chachajaan passing by in his tongo. He immediately clutched the jalebis and ran in an inside street.
Devouring the Jalebis and the Stomachache
Reaching a safe corner, he began eating jalebis and he ate so many that he felt that jalebis would pop out from his ears and nostrils. Soon, he saw boys from the neighbourhood had assembled in the gali. He was so full that he started handing out jalebis to the children around. Soon, more and more children came. He kept distributing the jalebis and one by one, spent all the four coins to buy jalebis.
After having washed his hands and mouth, he got back home pretending innocence. He feared that he might burp and jalebis would pop out. At night he had to eat his dinner, though his stomach was full with the jalebis he had devoured. Not eating the dinner would demand an explanation. So, he simply had his dinner, but spent rest of the night suffering a stomach ache. The next morning he was absolutely fine, calling children’s stomach as digestion machines.
Getting ready for school, he headed towards it feeling secure that he would receive four rupees as scholarship money, with which he would pay his fees. But on reaching the school he found out that the scholarship money would be paid next month. Master Ghulam Mohammed announced that the money for the fees would be collected during the recess. He was in a fix. Not knowing what to do, he ran away from the school after the recess.
He kept walking and walking till he reached the point where the Kambelpur railway station began. Under a shadegiving tree besides the railway track, he began to cry. He realised that the things that seemed too simple had unnecessarily become complex. He began to pray to Allah Miyan that somehow he should bestow only four rupees on him.
Promising and Playing Games
He kept praying the rest of the day, making promises to offer namaaz, recite the ten surats and Ayat-al-Kursi and so on. But nothing happened. The next day, too, he walked directly to this spot and offered endless prayers. Then, he decided to play a game with Allah Miyan to place four rupees under the rock. All he could find under the rock, however, was a hairy worm. He kept playing this game in the hope that Allah Miyan would give in to his wishes.
He Got Caught
Defeated on the second day, too, he decided to think of strategies to strike a deal with Allah Miyan the next day. However, that very day his report of being absent from the school had reached his home. He thought it is needless to share what the consequences were, but till his eighth standard he kept wondering what harm would have occurred had Allah Miyan granted him four rupees. Only later he realised that if Allah Miyan was to grant everything merely by listening to man’s prayers and demands, man would not have learnt to do anything.