The mystery of the silver cow

By Amartya Nayak

It was afternoon in Govardhan, a small village. Gopal was working in the field along with his friends when he noticed a bright patch of silver. “I wonder what that is!” he thought. When he went up the mountain to explore, he found nothing. During dinner, he recounted the story to his friends, who didn’t believe him but agreed to keep watch regardless.

The next day, around the same time, the bright patch of silver reappeared. Many of Gopal’s friends saw it. They decided to search the hillside to find the source of the silver patch, except for Manan. Manan was a good worker but always looked for opportunities to take breaks and be lazy. They all went up to the hill in the evening and began searching. However, they didn’t find anything and returned home, feeling weary.

“Hey! Where are my belongings?” one villager exclaimed. “My jewelry is stolen!” cried another. Many other cries followed. Everyone’s belongings were missing, except Manan’s. He claimed it was because he was at home, and he slammed his door shut. Gopal almost believed it was Manan, as how could he not hear the thief? But he couldn’t prove anything as a thorough search of Manan’s home revealed nothing.

Gopal was taking a stroll through the village when he noticed one of Manan’s cows was missing. Suddenly, it all clicked together. He organised a search party the next day to look for Manan’s cow. Manan tried to protest, but to no avail. After a few hours, the cow was found by Patel, but it wasn’t a normal cow. It had been painted silver.

“So that’s what the patch of silver was. I’m going to ask Manan why he painted his cow silver,” Patel said. He was about to bring the cow to Manan’s house when Gopal stopped him. “Let it roam about for a while,” he said mysteriously.

After the sun had gone down, the cow headed for the forest. It went into a cave, which was well-furnished with hay, a bowl of water, and all the missing items from the village. “How did you know?” Rohit asked Gopal.

Gopal explained, “Well, when I saw that one of Manan’s cows was missing, I was suspicious. Cows always come back to their home after a while. Then I remembered I hadn’t seen it since the day I saw the bright flash. Then I figured out that the silver patch must be the cow. So, Manan used it as a distraction to steal from our homes.”

The villagers complimented and thanked Gopal for finding their belongings and took a very guilty Manan to the nearby police station. They celebrated that night with a bonfire.