The Short Story: Need Vs Greed

At midnight, Sameer and Mansi were driving to the city. They were carrying a suitcase and a water bottle.

The roads were quiet. Sameer was driving the car, while his wife calmly enjoyed the peaceful surroundings.

The car suddenly broke down midway. Sameer tried restarting the car, but it wouldn’t start. They both looked worried. Sameer stepped out of the car and opened the bonnet to see what was wrong.

A few minutes later, Mansi also got out and stood beside Sameer. She asked, “Did you find the problem?” Sameer replied, “No.”

Despite trying their best, they couldn’t identify the issue. It was around 3:30 a.m. They thought to look around for a house to wait until sunrise. They grabbed the luggage bag and the water bottle with them. Everything around was dark, but they walked with the help of moonlight.

After walking for some time, Sameer noticed something shining on the roadside, a bit far from them. He pointed it out to Mansi and they both ran toward the shining object. They found it was a gold coin. Both felt happy looking at it.

They noticed that more gold coins were scattered on the ground, placed about a foot apart. Being excited, they made a plan to collect the coins in their luggage bag. Step by step, they kept collecting the coins as they walked.

Unknowingly, they entered a dense forest, as everything around was pitch dark. By then, they’d gathered a lot of gold coins. Soon, they saw a deep valley with piles of gold coins. They got excited.

Wanting even more, Mansi came up with a plan. She told Sameer, “Let’s tie the clothes from our bag together to make a long rope. I’ll hold the rope tightly from outside the valley while you climb down.”

Sameer agreed. Once he reached the bottom, he would fill the coins into the luggage bag, tie the bag to the rope and Mansi would pull it up. This way, they planned to empty the valley completely.

They carried out the plan exactly as discussed. But just as they had collected enough, a lion suddenly emerged from within the pile of coins and roared. Sameer was shocked and terrified.

He ran toward the rope, grabbed it tightly and began to climb. Mansi tried pulling him up. But the lion quickly charged at Sameer and bit his leg. The force of the lion’s grip was so strong that Mansi lost balance and also fell into the valley.

They both tumbled to one corner of the valley and started shouting for help. The lion roared and slowly began walking toward them. Terrified, Sameer and Mansi pleaded for their lives.

The lion suddenly jumped and attacked Sameer, biting his neck. Mansi cried in agony and begged the lion to spare her husband.

Sameer tried to resist, but within seconds, he took his last breath. Witnessing this, Mansi went into shock and fainted. Later the lion satisfied its hunger.

Later when Mansi opened her eyes and looked around, her husband was nowhere. And the lion was watching her in silence. She screamed in pain and started crying.

The lion stood and started walking toward her. She begged it to let her live. But the lion didn’t stop. It attacked her and within minutes, her breath also came to a halt. Later, the lion satisfied its hunger.

After hours of nonstop rain, the valley filled with water. The lion swam up, climbed out and returned to the jungle.