Hadiya was a good girl. She helped others and got good grades. However, there was just one problem with her — Hadiya had the bad habit of blaming others for anything wrong that she did.

Once she broke her grandmothers’ vase and blamed it on her brother, the other time she accidentally scratched the garden wall and blamed it her neighbour’s cat. The blame game continued for a while. At first, her brother ignored it but soon he started getting really annoyed. Finally, he came up with a plan.

One morning, when Hadiya was getting ready for the day, she heard a crash. She quickly went downstairs and saw that her brother had broken a glass.

She asked, “How could you break mama’s favourite glass? Mama is going to get really angry with you.”

“I’ll just say that you broke it,” her brother said and laughed out loud.

“Whaat? Why would you do that?” Hadiya yelled, as she could not believe her ears.

“Since you love blaming others, so it’s time you get a taste of your own medicine,” her brother said in an affirm tone.

As soon as he said this, both of them heard their mother’s footsteps coming closer to them. Their mother entered the living room where both siblings were standing. As soon as she saw the mess, she looked at both of them angrily.

“Who did this?” she asked.

“I don’t know, mama. I came as soon as I heard a crash and saw Hadiya,” her brother innocently answered.

Hadiya was shocked. She was nervous, because she never came across such a situation. Blaming others was so easy, but being blamed herself and that too when you haven’t done anything wrong, made her literally shocked. She had never thought that her brother would put the blame on her.

Her mother was really disappointed. She told Hadiya that she would not be going to her friend’s birthday party that evening.

“But mama, you promised me,” Hadiya protested, but she knew that it was her fault. If she hadn’t put the blame on her brother every time something happened, then she wouldn’t be in this mess. She silently went upstairs and cried in her room.

In the evening her mother entered her room. She sat beside Hadiya on the bed and said, “You know, your brother told me the truth. He confessed that he broke the glass but he also told me how you’ve been putting the blame on him every time you did something wrong.

“My dear, this is not at all a good habit. In fact, when you do this you are weakening your relations with your dear ones. Now that you are in the same position as you put others in, you can understand how miserable one feels on being blamed for something that they haven’t done themselves.”

Hadiya sighed, “Yes, I understand, and I have learnt my lesson.”

Her mother smiled and patted her head, “Good, now get dressed. Since you’ve learnt your lesson, so I’ll take you to your friend’s party.”

Hadiya was overjoyed, “Thank you, mama! I promise, next time I won’t blame someone for my mistakes. I’ll tell the truth.”

With that, she hurriedly got up and went to get dressed for the party.

Published in Dawn, Young World, January 8th, 2022