Lost cash that never got lost

One summer I took my family on vacation to Kashmir. We were accompanied by a friend. Upon reaching Jammu, we took a bus for Srinagar.

Midway, all the passengers stepped out to have lunch at a dhaba (eating jaunt). While eating, a sling bag type of leather pouch, in which I keep cash, tickets, important papers etc, was constantly obstructing my hands so I hung it on the back of my chair.

After the meal, we all hurried back to the bus. The excited children in our group were making plans to make the best of their sojourn. Everybody was in a cheerful mood. But suddenly, I became tense when I realised that I had left behind my sling bag. By then, the bus must have covered about 10 kilometers. I started getting nervous and was too embarrassed on realising my slip. When I told my friend about it, he went to the driver and told him about what had happened. Asked by the driver, I told him that the pouch had about Rs 15,000 (Dh1,385) in cash, besides some important papers. A nice person that he was, the driver immediately stopped the bus by the roadside and comforted me by saying, "Do not worry, Sir."

He signalled the driver of a truck coming from the opposite direction to stop. Our bus driver explaining the situation and the problem and requested him to carry me back to the eating jaunt. He also deputed his assistant to accompany me. As I sat by the side of the truck driver, anxiety was writ large on my face.

I was constantly staring out of the windshield waiting to reach the place and collect my bag at the earliest. In order to break the monotony and give me a piece of advice, the truck driver asked me why I could not have kept just the money in the buttoned-up front pockets of my shirt?

Wrong foot

Caught on the wrong foot, I tried to explain to him my point. Putting my hand on one of the pockets, I told him that these were "not safe". The moment I said this, I felt a cold sensation within me because upon touching the pocket, I realised that all the money was "safe" in the very pocket I had described as "unsafe". It was a moment of absolute embarrassment for me. Suddenly I remembered how at some point of time I had unwittingly transferred the cash to my shirt's left pocket and the important papers to the right one - and then simply forgot all about it!

The truck driver, however, kept sermonising on how I should have carried the money and that I must learn a lesson for future. Now I was feeling annoyed over the unsolicited piece of advice. But I had no option but to nod in affirmation to all the instructions the talkative truck driver had to offer me. I was, deep inside, struggling to find out how I would retrieve the situation once I would reach the eating jaunt.

The moment we reached our destination, my escort jumped out of the truck and I followed him. While landing on the ground I quietly took out the wad of currency notes from my pocket and clutched it firmly in my hand making sure nobody saw it. As I rushed into the dhaba, the man sitting at the cash counter told me that the "bag" I had left behind was safe. "It's hanging over there - and please see if all its contents are safe", he told me.

I unzipped the pouch and quickly slipped the wad of currency notes into it. The jaunt manager asked me again, "Is everything intact, Sir?" With a broad grin on my face I told him, "Yes, of course. Everything is there as it was". I thanked him profusely as we boarded a bus to reach the place where our bus was waiting for us.

Now it was my friend's turn to give some sane "advice" to me. But when I quietly whispered into his ears what actually had happened, he just stared into my face in disbelief. We intently looked into each other's face for some time before we burst into muffled guffaws.

Lalit Raizada is a journalist based in India