Mangalram was a postman. He took great pride in his profession and justifiably so. This was a time when the technological advancements of telecommunication had not enveloped the masses and the world was not connected as it is today.

Being a postman was an important job and held a certain respect in society. Unlike the humble postman of today who lies forgotten in obscurity, the postman of a pre-globalized India was well-known in all the neighbourhoods he operated.

Mangalram was no exception. Although he drew a meagre salary of 657 Rupees monthly, he had immense job satisfaction. It helped that he was not a materialistic man and appreciated the subtler aspects of life that were beyond the realm of money. Dutifully on the 1st of every month, he would hand over almost the entire salary to his wife and keep only about 10 or 20 rupees for his routine expenses, which were limited to cups of teas, glasses of sugarcane juice and packets of his favourite brand of chewing tobacco.

It was the 7th of November — pay day. Computers had not yet invaded the offices of the world and like many organizations, the post office employees received their salaries in cash. Salary however, was the last thing on Mangalram’s mind. He’d had a disagreement with his wife the previous evening and was thinking of ways to make up to her. Ultimately, he decided to bring her a present of piping-hot jalebis- her favourite dessert.

In a hurry, he left the office and forgot to collect his pay check. He was buying jalebis from the street vendor near his home when a colleague hailed him from behind, “Oye Mangalram! Celebrating salary day with jalebis I see, won’t you share some with me?”

“Good god! I forgot today was salary day” gasped Mangalram and pedalled away furiously on his bicycle towards the post office, leaving behind his colleague howling in amusement.

The post office closed at 6PM on weekdays and Mangalram was racing to beat the clock. He shuddered to think of the expression on his wife’s face if he were to come home without the money. Fortunately, the post office was open when he arrived. He went inside and silently thanked the gods when he saw the head clerk Ghanshyam sitting inside his cabin. Ghanshyam was in the payroll department and handled the salary disbursement for the post office employees and Mangalram had been worrying that he would have left home for the day.

Ghanshyam was chatting with another clerk Hasan when Mangalram walked in with a big smile on his face.

“Sir I am here to collect my salary. Almost went home without it” chirped Mangalram.

Irritated at being interrupted in the middle of a juicy conversation, Ghanshyam grumbled, “Wait outside, I’ll call you in.”

Mangalram obliged. As soon as he left the room, Ghanshyam burst out,

“I swear to god this man gives me a headache every time. Just look at him, he remembers to collect his salary five minutes before closing time. And I simply can’t stand the sight of his stupid face, smiling all the time!”

Hasan smiled indulgently, “That’s true, he looks like he’s always in a dreamland.”

“I’ll bring him back to earth today, you just see”, replied Ghanshyam, venom dripping from his voice.

He called Mangalram in and handed him a bunch of currency notes in a gruff manner.

“Be quick and sign the ledger. Because of you I have to stay till late today”, said Ghanshyam in an attempt to get rid of him quickly.

Mangalram who was already in a hurry to reach home before the jalebis went cold and limp, took the bundle of cash from Ghanshyam and kept it in his wallet without counting. The thickness of the bundle seemed alright to him anyway. He signed the ledger against his name to acknowledge receipt of the salary, thanked Ghanshyam and dashed off.

After he had gone, Ghanshyam smiled triumphantly at Hasan. With the air of a magician pulling out a rabbit from a hat, he slowly brought his right hand up from under the table, clutching three crisp 100 Rupee notes in it.

“I owed you 90 Rupees right, here- take this. Consider the extra amount as an early birthday gift”, laughed Ghanshyam handing him a hundred rupee note.

Hasan stared incredulously at Ghanshyam, “What if he had counted it?”

“So what? I would have told him it’s a mistake and given him the remaining money. Anyway now he has signed the salary ledger, he can’t say anything; it’s over”, replied Ghanshyam with a smug smile.

“And when he eventually realizes he has received only half his salary, then what?”

“Then I’m sure that realization would wipe that stupid smile off his face”

Mangalram reached home and immediately handed the bundle of cash and the packet of jalebis to his wife Jyoti, who had already forgotten their tiff and was in a pleasant mood. Jyoti took the cash from him, and locked it in her wardrobe for safekeeping.

They didn’t notice the discrepancy until the following morning, when Jyoti extracted the bundle out to take some money for buying vegetables. She counted the money and was surprised to find only 357 Rupees. She recounted it, but there was no mistaking it- seven 50 Rupee notes, one 5 Rupee note, and two 1 Rupee notes- that was all. She asked Mangalram if he had kept some money with him and was horrified when he told her that he’d given her the entire amount as usual. She explained the matter to him and both of them frantically emptied the wardrobe in search of the missing 300 Rupees. After searching fruitlessly for thirty minutes, she asked him, “Did you count the money carefully while collecting it?”

Realization hit Mangalram like a ton of bricks. He had been in a hurry and Ghanshyam was eager to shoo him away as well. Why Ghanshyam held a grudge against him, he had no idea; however, it was common knowledge in the office that Ghanshyam disliked him. Mangalram understood how he had been tricked. Instead of the usual 100 Rupee notes, he had paid him in 50 Rupee notes. Mangalram had overlooked the denomination, and the number of notes had seemed correct to him. He told all this to his wife.

“What will you do now?” asked Jyoti in an exasperated voice. Despite his eccentricities, Mangalram was not an un-intelligent man.

“I can’t accuse him of stealing as I have already signed the register. We don’t have any proof so it’s better to go and ask politely, he might return it”, he replied. However, the couple felt uncertain. It didn’t seem they would get back the money so easily.

Their foreboding proved correct on Monday when Mangalram broached the topic with Ghanshyam in the office. He politely asked Ghanshyam if there might have been a mistake while paying him. In response, Ghanshyam angrily denied making any mistake.

“I gave you the exact amount. You signed the ledger yourself, now please don’t waste my time”, said Ghanshyam curtly, dismissing Mangalram out of his cabin.

Mangalram returned home that evening feeling helpless. He couldn’t think of any way to get his money back. Undoubtedly, it would be difficult for them to manage their expenses this month but they could still get by. No, it was more a question of his principles. According to him, to tolerate a wrongdoing was just as bad as supporting it. He didn’t necessarily want Ghanshyam to be punished, he just wanted what was rightfully his.

Jyoti looked at his forlorn face and realised at once that he had failed to get the money. Frustrated, she said “Remember why we fought that day? You were sweeping the kitchen floor after sunset. You didn’t listen to me even when I told you stop”

Mangalram spoke in a tired voice, “My dear, why are you bringing that up now?”

“Don’t you see? It’s bad luck to sweep in the evening. It drives away Lakshmi. You didn’t listen and look what happened the next day”

“Jyoti that’s just a superstition. You know there was a reason behind it in the ancient –” He stopped abruptly as a brainwave hit him. “Jyoti you’re a genius. Superstition, that’s it!”

Jyoti looked nonplussed, but Mangalram’s brain was racing ahead.

Everyone knew Ghanshyam was highly superstitious. He had once yelled at a peon in front of everyone for accidentally breaking a mirror as it supposedly brought bad luck. His fingers were adorned with rings containing various gemstones to protect him from the planetary effects. And whenever a black cat crossed his path, he would wait for someone else to go ahead. Once Mangalram had heard him telling Hasan that he was in the phase of the Saadhe-Saati (A seven and a half year period of time when Saturn enters your zodiac sign) and was following the advice of a priest to reduce the harmful effects it could cause. Mangalram decided to leverage Ghanshyam’s superstition to his advantage.

The next day at lunchtime, Mangalram staged a loud conversation with his friend Dayaram.

“Why, you’re looking quite cheerful today Mangalram, didn’t someone steal a whole lot of your money recently?” asked Dayaram.

“Ohh yes, but I am going to get it back soon”, replied Mangalram joyfully.

“Ohh, so you know who the thief is?”

“Not yet, but I’ll know soon and he’ll be punished accordingly”

He was pleased to notice that Ghanshyam was staring at them and listening to their conversation with utmost attention. He continued, “Have you heard of the great Bangali Baba of Agra. He was in the town for a visit. I met him at the market fair yesterday.”

“Isn’t he a renowned Tantrik? People say he knows black magic, is it true?” asked Dayaram with interest.

“He knows all kinds of magic, my friend. Bewitchment of a romantic interest, inciting quarrels between couples, domestic or financial troubles, cursing someone- you name it, Baba is an expert of everything. When I told him my money was stolen, he asked me for a list containing the names of all the people I suspected. I hope you won’t take offence, but I didn’t know who to suspect, so I gave him a list of everyone I know in town- all my friends, neighbours and all the employees in the post office”

“No offence taken friend, but what will Baba do with that list?”

“He has a pet parrot in Agra who is trained to pick out the criminal from a list of names. Baba will go back to Agra soon and we’ll know who the thief is”, replied Mangalram with a grin.

Mangalram said goodbye to Dayaram as he started on his delivery round. As he was leaving, he threw a glance at Ghanshyam and was pleased to see him wiping the sweat off his forehead.

For the next three days, Mangalram was telling everyone in the office about Baba’s fearsome powers and how close he was to finding the thief. He was careful to have these conversations when Ghanshyam was within earshot.

He noticed with glee that the imaginary Baba was beginning to have an effect on Ghanshyam. He was becoming increasingly irritable and snapping at anyone who made a mistake at work.

On the fourth day at lunchtime, he decided to go for the kill. Ghanshyam was searching for a file inside a cabinet near Mangalram’s desk when Mangalram started talking to Dayaram,

“Just yesterday, Baba was telling me on the telephone that a man who was cheated by his brother came to him for help. Do you know what Baba did to the brother? He made all his hair and teeth fall”

“Your Baba seems very scary Mangalram. By the way, has he told you who the thief is?” asked Dayaram.

Ghanshyam’s hands stopped searching among the bundle of files as he focused his hearing on the conversation going on behind his back.

Mangalram noticed this and replied with a relish,

“Ahh yes, he’s really close now. The parrot has eliminated almost all the suspects from the list. Only a handful are remaining now. Baba will know by today evening and he’ll call me tomorrow to let me know”

“What will you do with the thief then?” questioned Dayaram.

Mangalram laughed, “I won’t have to do anything. Using his divine powers, Baba told me that the thief is going through a Saadhe-Saati. And if he keeps the stolen money for more than one week, Baba’s curse will cause his Saadhe-Saati to extend for another seven and a half years. Bad luck will continue to befall him for a long period of time.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw Ghanshyam turn from the file cabinet with an alarmed look on his face. Then he hurried towards his cabin without a word to either of them.

The next morning at home, Jyoti was sitting on the floor of their living room shelling peas when she noticed a shadow outside the crack of their main door. Before she could get up to check, there was a sound of rustling paper- someone had slipped something inside their house through the space under the door.

She went near the door and was speechless with joy as she saw three 100 Rupee notes lying there. When she showed Mangalram the money, he smiled in satisfaction. The money had been returned to them in six days.

That day in office, Mangalram noticed that Ghanshyam looked a lot more relaxed and at ease compared to the last few days. At lunchtime, a colleague asked Mangalram in the presence of everyone,

“So Mangalram, do you now know who the thief is?”

Mangalram answered,

“No one I know. Baba told me that nobody on the list is a thief. And he was right…”

Mangalram looked Ghanshyam in the eye and smiled before continuing,

“…because my wife found the money yesterday inside the wardrobe itself, I had accidentally misplaced it.”