Truth – the greatest weapon

By Shaurya Bhasin

A boy named Fathom was very fond of Mahatma Gandhi. He followed his principles diligently and knew that the greatest weapon in the world is truth. However, saying a bit of lie to make someone happy can also be considered truth. He experienced this many times in his life.

Once, he was walking down the street and saw a boy crying. Fathom asked the little boy politely, “Why are you crying?” Sobbingly, the boy said, “I have lost my friend’s 5 paise coin and his toffee.” Fathom thought for a while and asked, “Where did you lose the coin and the toffee?” the boy replied, “I was walking in the north direction and then I suddenly fell into a pit. I struggled hard to get out of the pit and was able to do so after a tremendous effort. Once out of the pit, I checked my pocket to see whether I had the coin and the toffee. It was then that I realised that the toffee and the coin were missing. I went inside the pit and searched for it for about 10 minutes but still could not find anything. I came back to the surface and started crying.”

Fathom said, “Don’t cry, I will look in the pit for that coin and toffee. You stay here only.” Fathom went inside the pit but he could neither find the coin nor the toffee. He went to the boy and asked, “The toffee you had was of which flavour?” The boy replied “butterscotch.” Fathom suddenly remembered that he had a butterscotch-flavoured toffee and a 5-paise coin in his pocket. He hid behind the tree and bent a bit and secretly took out his own butterscotch toffee and the 5 paise coin and gave it to the boy. He said, “Here you go with your coin and toffee,” the boy happily replied, “Thank you.”

There was another instance, which Fathom remembered vividly. Once he stole some money from his best friend. When he spent it, he felt very ashamed and was filled with guilt. The money he stole from his friend was 50 rupees. Though it isn’t a huge amount now, at that time it was a substantial amount. He somehow managed to arrange the money but he was not able to give this money to his friend as he did not want to speak the truth. He narrated this incident to his father and his father advised him to speak the truth.

Next day, he went to his friend’s house. He was nervous and wasn’t able to speak the truth. His friend asked, “What happened?” He replied, “I stole your Rs 50 and now I am feeling very ashamed. I was not able to speak the truth but my father advised me to tell the truth.” Fathom gave him the 50 rupees which he had stolen and said, “Please accept this money and my apologies.” Fathom stood up and was about to open the exit door and suddenly his smiled and said, “Your apologies and rupees 50 are accepted.” Fathom stopped and looked back and both the friends hugged each other. Now Fathom got to know that truth can make a person free. He was neither feeling any guilt nor was he ashamed.