Ones upon a time, there was a haunted house in a village. Nobody knew who owned it or who had lived there. No one came to visit or check on the house. The house was called the haunted house because if anyone was near that house, they heard scary sounds. It was very large, but isolated from the rest of the houses in the village.

One day three brothers came to the village to spend their summer vacation with their grandparents. Their names were Ali, Ahmed and Danish.

One day the boys went to play cricket with some friends they had made in the village. When they were coming back from playing cricket, everyone was talking about the haunted house. They made a plan to get inside the haunted house at night. In the evening, their father came to pick them up from their village, so they could not act on their plan.

After a month, Ali, Danish and Ahmed came back to the village. They made a plan to enter the haunted house at midnight when everyone would be sleeping. Still, they all were a bit afraid because of the stories they had heard of the haunted house. When they got near the haunted house, Ahmed became scared due to the scary sounds coming from it.

They entered the house from a window and went in the lounge and saw a cupboard which was shining. They opened the cupboard and saw heaps of diamonds, emerald, gold and silver. The boys rubbed their eyes to confirm that they were not dreaming.

Ahmed said to Ali and Danish, “First we need to know who is making the scary sounds. They went to the lobby and saw a lot of snakes and bats. They ran into the lounge again and took all diamonds, emeralds, silver and gold and ran out of the haunted house. They brought all the precious gems to the city and told their father about snakes and bats. Also, they told their father about the diamonds, emerald, gold and silver they took. Their father was shocked to see all the precious stuff.

The father sold all the gems and got lots of money. He asked the boys to go to village and distribute all money among the poor villagers because the haunted house was in their village, so it belonged to them. The three brothers brought all the money to the village and distributed it among the villagers. The villagers were very happy to have lots of money to buy food and clothes for their families. They thanked the three brothers and praised them for their bravery and help.

Published in Dawn, Young World, October 10th, 2020