Showing One’s Mettle

Showing One’s Mettle year-old servant, Ramaya. Now master of the house, he broke open their boxes and stole jewels worth about rupees one lakh, then escaped into the darkness. As he went furtively on his way, he passed by two policemen on night duty. Sensing something suspicious in his movements, they detained him for interrogation. On being threatened with dire consequences, he broke down and confessed to his crime, handing over the stolen goods to the two policemen, Sheikh Mahboob and Sheikh Rasheed. They then took him and his entire loot to the police station. The police officers on duty greatly appreciated the honesty of these two policemen who could so easily have felt tempted to enrich themselves, in such a situation. In addition to giving them a cash reward, they also had them promoted, Sheikh Mahboob becoming Station Officer and Sheikh Rasheed becoming Head Constable. How opposite were the implications for different people involved in a single event! Virtue was rewarded and crime was punished. But there is nothing accidental in the one event simultaneously giving rise to such different consequences: such events are the divine instruments by which God puts different individuals to the test. Where one man would bring discredit upon himself, another man would cover himself in glory. In each case, the individual concerned would reveal himself in his true colours. Where Sheikh Mahboob and Sheikh Rasheed evinced the sterling qualities of strict honesty and dedication to duty, Ramaya revealed himself for the base, unprincipled scoundrel that he was, and was rightly sentenced to life imprisonment. The world is like a divine stage where human beings are given the opportunity by God to reveal their true natures. Human caliber can be discerned all too clearly from the way people respond to different types of situations.