It was Saturday evening at my office in Mumbai we, Vikas Me and Mangesh were about to close the office, we were running a Desk top publishing (DTP) office in Shivaji park Mumbai, just before we could close and move to our respective house, we saw a short man of maybe of 5 feet walks into our office, he had a typical structure very hard to forget, he was short 5 feet height, he had marks of chicken pox on his face and the most distinguish was he could see only from one eye, the other one was visibly damaged. He came in with an enquiry and said that he work for a multinational company and his company has came up with a tender to design and print their annual magazine, first he asked us to show him our previous work so that he could judge whether we are capable to take this job, after discussing about his company, his requirements and our strength he finally said that tender document will cost 300 Rs., then he asked the money for it, we said that we will give him once we receive the tender documents, so he said let one of us accompany him to his office where he will give him the documents, I decided to go with him, he took me by walk all the way to his office, whilst walking we were chit chatting, I could judge that he was nothing but a fraud whose intention is to get this 300 Rs., finally we reached one building, where he asked me to handover him the money and he will go upstairs and get the tender document for me, as expected by me he never returned, I waited there for more than one hour.
Next day I narrated this incident to my partners and also informed our other friends who were running business in our vicinity and then business as usual.
After a month or so I got a call from one of my friend who was running a computer institute that one similar looking guy how I explained to them about the fraud is in their institute with an enquiry for a corporate training, they kept him waiting saying that their boss is outside so that I can come down and verify him if he is the same guy, they also informed my partner Vikas and a police friend of ours. As soon as he saw me and Vikas and the police friends of ours, he immediately understood that he got caught red handed this time, when we asked him why he is doing these fraud, he started pleading and said that he was working as artist in a press, four years back he was sick because of chicken pox, during that time he lost one of his eyes also, after he recovered from chicken pox he was terminated from his job and he could not find any other job after that, to take care of his daily expenses he started doing these petty frauds, then Vikas asked him dose he got any certificate to prove his credentials he said yes then Vikas took 100 Rs. and gave him and told him, that he got two choice one go back to his house and get those certificate and come back and we will give him job suitable to his talent else take this 100 Rs. run away from here and never show up in this vicinity he will not be lucky next time and will be behind bars.
I was there in Mumbai for three years after that, he never showed up neither in the office nor in the vicinity.
(C) Ramesh Iyer
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