“Bhaiya tea please”, I said to tea seller. “How many ?” he
said. “Only 1”, I said with smile while handing over a 10 Rs note to him. “What
happen bhaiya, you won’t drink tea today ?” he said to Amit. “I just had heavy
snacks, not feeling a need for tea now ”, Amit said.
I picked up my tea. I was waiting for 2 Rs which he supposed
to give me back. He was searching in his money box.”I don’t have 2 Rs now, take
it later bhaiya”, he said. We have a mutual understanding with tea seller when
it comes to 1 or 2 Rs coins; sometimes we don’t have 1 or 2 Rs coin or
sometimes he doesn’t have.
“But brother when ?” I smiled. “This is my last tea, I won’t
come here again”, I continued. “Why, are you leaving from here ?” he said. “Our
office is shifting to somewhere else”, I said with smile. For 1 or 2 seconds I
saw a pause in his eyes. Our office shifting will cause a direct impact on his
daily income. There was no emotions in his eyes, he just picked up a 5 Rs coin
from his money box and handed over towards me.”Take it, you won’t come here”,
he said. “It’s ok, thanks”, I said.
I had a tea sip and started to cross the road. I was
surprised by his act of returning 5 Rs coin. The tea seller started selling tea
around 5-6 months back; since few weeks he has been going through a bad phase
of his tea selling business. The food court and another tea shop, which
recently opened inside IT park premises, are getting tough completion from
these road side stalls; these road side stalls are proving far better tea and
snacks in lesser price. The big shots influenced authorities to shut these
stalls; randomly authority people are coming and impacting these stalls badly.
Most of the stalls have already emptied the place, but few mostly who are
selling tea are still surviving in fear with a small 5 kg cylinder, burner, a big
pan and a kettle. The tea used to cost 7 Rs but in recent days when tea seller
started facing heat he increased the cost to 8 Rs. He started putting a little
bigger cup of tea, which costs 10 Rs. He is trying ways to maintain his tea
selling business or better I would say his daily income. His height is approximately
4.5 feet and age should be around in between 22-26. He is younger than me and I
am sure he must be a sole source of income for few people; his mustache
clearly shows his responsibilities.
This person, who is selling tea to maintain his daily income
and going through a bad phase of his business, returned 5 Rs with a simple
honesty. I gave him a bad news, which would hit his income badly, but still he
was very firm. On the other side 1 shopkeeper, who is earning far more than
this tea seller offered me a 5 Rs candy instead of 5 Rs. and when I denied to take candy, he gave me
a look like I have a committed a crime by asking 5 Rs.
Simple honesty is so rare to see now a day or maybe we don’t
have time to see one. Daily I try to spend some time with motivational book,
podcast or online article, but today 1 simple act of honesty motivated and
inspired me in many ways.
