AN UTTERLY UNBELIEVABLE STORY OF AN HONEST MAN WHO GAVE UP ONE CRORE RUPEES
A man who had a chance to pocket one crore rupees and didn't think even twice before deciding that the money belongs to someone else and he has no right over it - that is the unbelievable story set out in a small town of Kerala.
K. Sudhakaran runs a small shop in Kanhangad, selling sundry items like sweets, juice, cold drinks and lottery tickets. One fine morning in 2014 P. Ashokan, one of his regular customers called and asked him to set aside ten lottery tickets for him. Sudhakaran did so and lo and behold, by evening one of those tickets had the winning number for the one crore rupees bumper prize.
It was at this moment that Sudhakaran's sterling character came to the fore. He could have easily taken the one crore rupees prize by claiming the ticket to be his. All that was required was to replace Ashokan's set of ten tickets with another set of ten tickets and he would not have known the difference.
But Sudhakaran is made from a different mould. His father had always inspired him to be scrupulously honest, "If you need to you can even beg, but you must never snatch other people's rights." When he rang up his father to tell him about the winning ticket, he was instructed, "Call up Ashokan right away and give him the news".
Ashokan was stunned - both by the win of a crore of rupees and by the incredible honesty of Sudhakaran. After all, he had not paid for the ten lottery tickets and Sudhakaran need not have disclosed that one of the tickets set aside for Ashokan had won the bumper prize.
Sudhakaran has no regrets, "No, not at all! I knew 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....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...."
Sudhakaran rightly proves that one doesn't have to be a Crorepati to give up a crore of rupees. He is a man of very modest means and earns about ten thousand rupees from his small shop.
He has to support a family of six, including a physically challenged daughter. He gets up at 4.30 every morning and undertakes a journey of two hours by train to reach his shop at Kanhangad. And he works seven days a week, with practically no break.
Sudhakaran is a quintessentially honest person. He was again in the news a few months later. He had found a gold chain while travelling in a train and had promptly handed it over to the police who could manage to trace the owner and restored the gold chain to her.
Sudhakaran's message to others? "Try to do as much good as possible and refrain from doing bad - that way you can lead a happy, meaningful life."
PositiveVibes.today salutes the exemplary man in an act of celebrating honesty and integrity as a core value of human life.
(Source of the story and images : thebetterindia.com)
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