Majhdia, Oct. 24: He works on daily wage for Rs.120 at a sweet shop in Nadia’s Majhdia and his monthly income seldom crosses Rupees 3200 due to weekly off. Nevertheless, a diamond studded gold ring which he found on the floor of the shop could not lure him for lucre. Son of a farm labour, Kaushik Biswas (21) from Nadia’s Majhdia, to whom honesty is bigger than needs, without a second thought found out its owner, a mentally unstable girl after a weeklong search and handed it to her parents on Tuesday night.
The gold ring with diamond worth around Rupees seventy thousand was lost by Rumpa Roy (25), a mentally unstable girl from Adityapur village of Majhdia, when she visited the sweet shop with her mother Kajal on October 17 night.
On Tuesday afternoon, Kaushik found out Rumpa’s house and handed over the ring to her mother Kajal. Kajal, wife a retired state home department employee, had offered Kaushik Rupees two thousand as reward for his noble gesture, but he humbly returned it with thanks.
“I have no credit to deserve… I just found the ring on the floor and handed it over to its owner. Why should I take money just for this?” Kaushik said.
Local sources said on October morning while cleaning the shop, Kaushik found the ring on the floor. But, being unsure of its value, he took it to a neighboring jeweler, who told him that the ring would be worth around Rupees Seventy thousand. Kaushik said, “I initially thought it as an imitation. Nevertheless, I decided to check with the jeweler. I was surprised about its value. So I realized that whoever had list it must be in a state of shock. So I decided to find out the owner and to return it”, Kaushik said.
But, the search he began asking the regular customers of the shop failed to yield any result. “For about five days I asked every customer if they had lost any ring. But I found none. I asked some neighboring shop owners who often visit the shop, but that too yield no result. But, rays of hope were seen on Tuesday morning when I heard some shop workers were discussing about the ring. I heard that the ring owned by a girl, who lost it in the market and her parents have also visited some shops to check if anybody had found it. I learnt from them that the family resides in Adityapur village. So later in the afternoon I found out the girl and handed over the costly ring to her mother”, Kaushik said.
Girl’s mother Kajal said, “My daughter is mentally unstable. But, she likes jeweler very much. So to keep her happy we allow her to don lot of jewelery. We also feel happy watching her happy donning the ornaments. On Ashami night, I took her to puja pandals and returned home after buying sweets from a sweet shop in Majhdia town. Later while preparing her for bed, I observed that the ring missing. On next day we searched few places including pandals. Later we also approached some shop owners in the market for help, even though we were sure that it is lost forever and rarely honest people seen who could return it”.
“So when saw Kaushik with the ring, I was utterly surprised. I never imagine that a youth, with a poor financial background could be so generous and honest. He made me to swallow my words”, added Kajal.
Kaushik said, “My parents are poor. But they taught me to live with dignity and never to be greedy…to us honesty always bigger than needs”.