Miserly Mrs. Mukherjee
Mrs. Mukherjee was a very miserly lady. Her husband was not as miserly but her parents were of a very greedy and miserly nature – since she was the only daughter and highly pampered by her parents – she obviously thought and understood the philosophy of life – Be miserly and also greedy if circumstances allow.
Mitali’s (Mrs. Mukherjee) husband was a doctor in the Government Hospital plus he used to practice privately as well – which meant that money was never a problem for them. As a private practitioner, he could not keep all his money earned through private practice in the bank so their cupboard was stacked with bundles of money!
Yet, Mitali behaved in a way that they were paupers. Priya, her maid knew her miserly nature very well. She used to observe how Mitali bought the near rotten vegetables because at midday it was given away at discounted rates. The maids (domestic helpers) of the locality often made fun of her miserly nature!
One day they had thrown a party and lots of Biriyani was left over from the party. Mitali ate the Biriyani for the next 4 days for lunch and dinner. On the 5th day, as the Biriyani was nearly about to rot, she reluctantly gave it away to her maid Priya!
And then she started to share the story of how magnanimous she was! At every tea party or get -together, she never forgot to mention that she gives away Biriyani to her domestic helpers ! The Biriyani had egg and large pieces of chicken – but she gave it away – unlike probably others who would take away the meat pieces and egg before giving it away to the maid…she had seen her parents do it – so she added that to her story!
All her friends politely nodded to her story and laughed behind her back knowing how miserly she was – who never invited them to her house for any get-together but greedily gobbled up all snacks that was offered at someone else’s residence! Mitali knew that there are many number of dumb people in this world who are very impressed by listening to stories of ‘daan-dharam’ ( charity-generosity) so she was basically trying to impress them!
Priya, who was given the rotten Biriyani on the 5th day – threw it away to Kaalu and Laaltu – the 2 street dogs who lived near her hut. She had bought fresh biriyani for her husband and children. Priya had made an extra key to the almirah where they (the Mukherjees) used to stack the un-accounted-for money made from private practice! She was clever and she stole only about 2000/- to 5000/- per day. Although living in a hut, in the inside she had double door refrigerator, flat TV, her husband and both her children used the latest smart phones…and soon she was even contemplating in buying a laptop for her son who was going to pass class 12th from the Government school. Priya always had the last laugh…..until of course one day her greed increased too much and she stole 40k at one go…and unfortunately (for her) that same day Mitali opened her Almirah to take out the bus and school fees of her children and found that money…lots of it…was missing…..
They could not approach the cops as they were stacking money in their cupboards and not the bank. She threatened Priya but Priya acted like an innocent lamb – screamed and shouted saying that the rich always blame the poor……Mrs. Mukherjee had a stroke and became bed-ridden. At this point they could not drive away Priya. Priya continued to steal.