“What’s this?” Sam thought as he returned home from his office and saw a box outside his doorstep. He looked around and found only a tag with a house number on it. There was 302 was written on it, which was the number of Sam’s house. He thought maybe his friends are trying to prank him or it could be a birthday present, as his birthday had just passed and a friend may have sent a surprise gift.

“Uhh, it’s so heavy!” Sam thought as he took the box inside his house. He was excited. The box was fully sealed so Sam carefully opened the seals of the box. As soon as he opened it, he wished that he had not done so because the box contained loads of ammunition!

He saw a large collection of weapons and explosives in that mysterious parcel. The sight of deadly weapons frightened Sam. A shiver ran down his spine and various thoughts came into his mind.

“Is this a trap? Am I being trapped in a terrorist activity? What will my family and friends think about me if someone finds out?” These thoughts made him shiver and he panicked.

Just then Sam saw a small piece of paper inside the parcel. He gathered his courage and picked it up. The paper had something written on it, but it was beyond Sam’s understanding since it seemed to be a code. After trying to understand it for a few minutes, suddenly Sam recalled a scene from an episode of his favourite detective series in which a detective was able to read similar writing with the help of a mirror. So Sam went and stood in front of the mirror and held the paper in front of it. Immediately the writing began to make sense as it was written in reverse format.

The message on the paper horrified Sam. It said: “Carol, deliver it to Mr Alex at 9 pm.”

Carol was his friendly neighbour and a very successful businessman whom Sam always admired.

Now he knew the reason behind Carol’s success — smuggling of illegal weapons. Someone must have dropped the parcel by mistake at his house instead of Carol’s who lived next door.

Sam became worried, he began to think what he should do now. Should he put the parcel in front of Mr Carol’s door or should he report the matter to the authorities and let them deal with it. Of course the latter made much sense.

He called the police and told them everything. He also suggested them to arrest Carol red-handed when he will be delivering the parcel to Alex at 9.00pm. Police officers liked his idea and asked him to put the parcel in front of Carol’s house. Sam did as he was told.

After a few minutes, Sam peeked from his window and saw Carol collecting the parcel. In a little while, Sam noticed the police also hiding at different places around their houses. Now they were all waiting for the right moment. When the clock struck 8:45pm, they saw Carol coming out from his house, sitting in his car and driving away.

The police followed him. After 10 minutes of driving, Carol stopped at a deserted spot where a car was already parked. Carol came out from his car and a man (Alex) from another car also came out. The police, who stopped at a distance from them, watched everything carefully and just when Carol handed the parcel to Alex, the police turned on their sirens and announced that the two men should not make any move as they were surrounded by cops from all sides.

Carol was dumbstruck while Alex tried to run, but the cops held him immediately. Both of them were arrested red-handed.

Next day, there was a knock at the door of Sam. He opened it and saw two police officers.

“You must be Sam,” one of the cops asked.

“Yes, I am,” Sam replied nervously.

“We are very proud of you, Sam! You did a great job in catching those smugglers’ gang. You saved the city from a deadly terrorist activity!” said the police officers and presented him with a ‘Shield of Bravery’ from the whole police department.

Published in Dawn, Young World, November 6th, 2021