Once upon a time somewhere in India there lived an young
man who dropped out of school due to family poverty and later was appointed as a
caretaker of a house under construction in the suburbs of a big town by the
benevolent owner. The young man built a small thatched hut in the campus and
started living there doing odd jobs apart from taking care. Soon he mixed well with
the neighboring households and began to take errands from them too. Thus he
somewhat earned the name of a Good Samaritan. However, things were not that met
the eye.
That winter was unusually dry with the rains
refusing to pour even in little drops. The greenery in the neighborhood
vanished and the cows owned by a few families had a hard time finding green
pastures to graze. The heads of the households therefore had to take the
decision of untethering their cattle so that the animals could graze freely in
nearby paddy fields feeding mainly on the dry and cut straws.
Things started happening fast. Almost every day
someone’s cow would be missing making the owner tense and agitated. Late
evening the young man would turn up with the missing animal saying he had
rescued it from the distant village where villagers put it under arrest for
damaging their garden plants. The owner would thank him profusely.
The situation changed radically. One evening the
young man turned up in someone’s house empty handed saying that the missing cow
could not be rescued as the villagers demanded money for release. He said the
villagers were very angry and they threatened to sell the cows off on the next
intrusion. The owner paid up easily and gratefully. The ransom money began to
be collected too frequently for comfort now and some owners had to pay ransom
several times a month. Few other stories about the young man started unfolding
at that time casting grave suspicion on his activities or associations. Finally, due to continuous
pressure applied by some of the owners the young man admitted his crime or corrupt acts. Very
soon his elder brother replaced him as the caretaker.
This story is quite relevant even now. Still we find
top political leaders stealing animal fodder across our cattle country to make money. However,
in an exemplary display of love for animals, only the other day a Uttar Pradesh
senior minister deputed a troop of state police personnel in pursuit of his seven stolen
buffaloes and even punished three of them for dereliction of duty and not
finding the missing animals sooner enough. The full state police force was right
royally engaged for days to find their minister’s stolen buffaloes. Fortunately
the police found all the animals in different areas of the state and more
positively no ransom was found to be behind the theft. The animal lovers of
this great country has now some real good reasons to rejoice.
