DOES YOUR UPBRINGING MAKE YOU HONEST 

TO THE CORE?

45-year-old K. Sudhakaran is a lottery ticket seller from Kanjangad, a town in northern Kerala.  One morning a regular customer of his called him up and asked him to set aside ten lottery tickets for him. Later that day, Sudharakan learned that one of those tickets had won the first prize - one crore (10 million) rupees! He rang up his father and told the matter. The reply was, “Call up Ashokan right away and give him the news!”   Sudhakaran did as his father asked him. Ashokan could hardly believe his ears when he learned what had happened!

Ashokan had not paid for the tickets. Nor had Sudhakaran told him the ticket numbers. And so, Sudhakaran didn’t have to tell him that one of the tickets that he had set aside for him had won the bumper prize. He could easily have pocketed the money had he wanted to—that wouldn’t have been considered illegal. Had he wished, he could have bagged the ten million rupee prize for himself.

To the inquiry why he chose to reveal this to Ashokan, the reply was,  “My father always told me that if you need to, you can even beg, but you must never snatch other people’s rights.”

To the further question whether he hesitated to call Ashokan or regretted later about what he did or later regretted the decision, his reply was, “No, not at all! I knew that what my father had said was perfectly right. My parents taught me to be honest, to do what is right, to consider everyone, rich and poor, as equal.” He continued, “My mother and all my other relatives were all very happy with what I had done. They all said that I had done the right thing.”

A couple of months ago, Sudhakaran was in the news - and for a similar reason. He had found a gold chain while traveling in a train and handed it to the police, who managed to trace its owner!

Sudhakaran’s little shop—which he’s taken on rent—is the sole means of livelihood for his family of six, including a daughter who is physically-challenged. He manages to earn around Rs. 10,000 a month from it. He is up every morning, at around 4:30, and takes the train from his village to Kanjangad—a journey of more than two hours each way. He works seven days a week, taking a day off only once in a while.

This man could have been a millionaire had he not listened to his heart and his father and kept the prize-winning lottery ticket for himself instead. But he has no regrets at all about his decision. “I know what I did was just what I should have,” he says unhesitatingly.

In contrast, we have to see the so-called religious who do not have a prick of conscience in doing illegal activities (Are we one among these!). Not only they do not have a prick of conscience, but also, they witness before others privately and publicly that it is a blessing of the God whom they worship! They hoard money and seek the help of ‘God’ to protect them.

(One of the interesting things that happened at most of our homes when the tender of Rs.500 and Rs. 1000 were withdrawn is that the wives who told to the husbands that they do not have any cash with them even on the evening of 8^th November bringing in a few invalidated currency notes. I came to know that a wife has brought about Rs.50,000 on that evening! She told her husband on that morning that the gas refill shall be brought on that day and he should leave the cost of it to which he had asked, “Don’t you the money for it” and the reply was, “No, I do not have any cash with me!” The effect of the withdrawal of the currency is that the black money within each home is being revealed!)