ON the morning of Aug 25, my son and I stopped over at my bank at the Cavalry Grounds in Lahore to draw cash. My son went inside and retuned with the cash in less than 10 minutes. We then drove off to deposit his school fee in another bank. This time I got out to make the deposit. The cashier took the money from me and as he counted it, he took out a Rs1,000 note. He said it was a counterfeit. Fake? I wondered how it was possible and tried to explain to the cashier how we had drawn the money from the bank just a few minutes ago. The cashier said he was sorry, marked the bill as ‘forged’ and returned it to me.

I felt very irritated and bereft. My son was perplexed. My instant reaction was to go back to the branch from where we had drawn the money and lodge a protest. We approached the cashier who had handed my son the cash only a while ago. He was a man apparently in his late 60s sporting a grey beard. I politely related the whole story to him and showed him the Rs1000 note marked forged. He threw the note back at me and said: “This is not ‘my’ currency note.

An argument followed and finally I asked to see the branch manager, who happened to be a young man sitting outside the cashier’s chamber who had listened to the whole conversation. He, too, stated to defend his colleague. He said the cashier was an honest and religious man who was to retire in the next two months. Then the manager started an investigation that included a rude interrogation of my son. He stopped only when I told him that he was trying to protect the real criminal.

It was around then that the cashier left the scene, reappearing with a little leather covered book in hand. I spotted a Rs1000 bill nestled in the centre of the book which he placed in my hands. To my shock and surprise it was a copy of the Holy Quran!

I lost my temper and asked the bank officials as to how dare they bring up the Holy Book. “Are you implying that I replaced the original with this forged note, and to achieve what?” I shouted and declared that I was going to the police. We were dissuaded from invoking the law by fervent pleas, the more passionate among them seeking forgiveness. But I am convinced that a visit to the nearest police station could have led to he unearthing of a fake currency racket.

Mohammad Tahseen

Lahore Cantt

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2016