A Mother's Tale Poem by Ravinder Kumar Soni

When I was a child, I heard this tale from my mother.
Very long ago, there lived a boy named Raju,
Who was careless and wicked.
One day
At the pond, wherein he daily bathed,
He saw a person throw a packet,
That quickly sank after a loud splash.
‘What have you thrown? ' Raju asked,
‘The evil that was with me, ' came the reply.
No one else was nearby,
And the packet contained eighty gold coins.
These Raju took to the main temple,
And gave one each to the beggars lined up at its gate,
Leaving one to himself
That coin he decided not to spend.
The beggars who had not seen so much wealth
With the other 79 coins initiated a buying spree,
A cascading effect.
There was more money in the village market,
And the neo-rich purchased things they did not need
And even stopped begging, it seemed as though
The haves had rested their tools to spite the have-nots,
Who did not deserve to have what the haves possessed.
Even today, people blame Raju for the evil he had let loose.

I still wonder what made my mother narrate this tale.