In the classic Hollywood movie The Sting, Paul Newman and Robert Redford play two con artists. They build a trap for the victim, brick by brick, that leads to a breathtaking denouement. Does the avaricious victim deserve our ridicule for his stupidity or sympathy for being cheated out of his ill-gotten wealth?
We are amused when people fall prey to confidence tricksters. But we are thrilled when a fortunate ‘victim’ outwits the trickster. He can’t stop boasting of how he outwitted the conman. Like the retired school teacher who received a call from a close friend.
The friend said he was stranded in Puri after the cyclone and requested the teacher to send `20,000 immediately. When asked about his identity, the friend became agitated and shouted into the phone, “Don’t you know your friend and neighbour Niranjan Das? Please hurry and send me the money!”
The teacher looked at his wife. Overflowing with the milk of human kindness, the lady said, “He must be in trouble. Go to the bank and send him the money.” The teacher wanted corroboration. He walked over to the next lane where Das lived to enquire about his whereabouts. Lo and behold, there stood on the threshold his neighbour Niranjan Das in flesh and blood! “Back from Puri already?” the teacher asked him.
Das looked baffled, “Puri? Why should I go to Puri?” When the teacher told him about the con call, they shared a hearty laugh, no doubt tinged with relief. Then they filed a FIR at the police station.Another neighbour was not so lucky. Mishra used to deposit his house key with the woman next door when he went out. The potential thief noticed this. One day he landed with a bag of vegetables after Mishra had left. “Auntie, these vegetables are from Mishra’s village,” he told the woman. “I met him on the way. He told me to take the house key and put the vegetables inside.”
“All right,” she said. “Be sure to lock the house and give me the key when you go.” The conman nodded dutifully. That was the last the lady saw of the crook. Mishra too never set eyes again on his valuables or the fresh vegetables. What pained the gentle lady the most was this: “He could have shown some decency by returning the key!”