Once upon a time, there was a girl name Sana. Sana was a well-mannered girl and belonged to a middle-class family. She was 14 years old.

One day, Sana and her mum went for grocery shopping to a nearby supermarket. The supermarket was huge and had almost everything a person could need — from everyday essentials to toys, and from clothing to workout equipments.

Sana’s mother made a grocery shopping list according to their budget, that focussed more on needs than luxuries. Sana, being sensible, understood the situation and always tried to remain undemanding.

So that day, while shopping with her mum, Sana saw a beautiful huge pink doll in the toys’ section. Sana loved the doll so much that she asked her mother to purchase it. Her mother denied the wish due to budget constraints. Sana became very sad and during the whole shopping trip, she kept looking at the doll.

When Sana and her mum went to the grains’ section, suddenly Sana saw a wallet lying at the corner of a rack. She was shocked to see it and thought, ‘Someone must have dropped his wallet and now will be looking for it.’

Sana picked up the wallet and saw there was a lot of money inside, she started having mixed feelings. She was in a dilemma — should to buy the doll from the wallet money or return it to its rightful owner? Sana soon realised that the path she wanted to choose to fulfil her desire was wrong.

While her mother was busy looking for the pulses she needed, Sana opened the wallet and saw a CNIC card in it. It belonged to a person named Jamal.

She went to her mother and told her about how she had found the wallet and together they went to the announcement desk. Over there, an announcement was made and within five minutes the owner came.

The owner of the wallet was very happy and thankful to Sana and her mum because his original CNIC card and ATM cards were also in the wallet. As gift for her honesty, the owner gave Sana five thousand rupees, which she first refused to accept, but then he insisted a lot and Sana’s mother allowed her to take it, feeling proud of her daughter.

Sana rushed to the toy’s section with her mum and purchased the doll she had liked, which was around Rs4,500. Sana realised that we should always be honest and never consider someone else’s stuff to be our own, no matter how much we may be in need of it.

Published in Dawn, Young World, June 18th, 2022