He was walking on his way back to the hotel room after his late dinner. It was already past 11.00. In small towns like this one, the streets are empty as soon as the sun sets.

He had come to the town on an official visit. It was part of his job- travelling for about 20 days in a month to small towns and cities. But he never complained. In fact he used to enjoy the travel, see new places, meet new people, observe the ways of life in the different places he visited.

There in front of him lying on the road was a 100 rupee note. He was surprised. He went near it but did not pick it up. He looked around to see if there was anything unusual. Absolutely Nothing.

Decided to pick up the note and see what happens. But nothing happened. There was the same stillness as earlier.

He walked ahead...another 100 rupee note..picked it again and walked ahead..This happened 4-5 times... He was feeling like a sleuth all excited about the event. He kept looking around for anything out of the normal. There was nothing...He continued walking ahead looking to his left right behind...secretly hoping there might be some adventure...at the same time concerned about his safety..

The picking of notes continued..As he went ahead there were 4-5 notes lying in many places. He reached his hotel..Went to his room quickly.. It was a small dingy room with just one tiny window and a creaky old fan.

He sat on his bed and counted the cash..4500 rupees. A big sum.

He kept it in his suitcase and locked it. He tried to sleep. But he could not. He was almost waiting for someone to come and demand the money from him. He imagined someone might have followed him and would now attack him for the money. He was almost ready for a fight. His imagination went wild thinking about plots of various movies and novels. His throat was dry, he went sweaty and hardly managed to sleep.

It was dawn, a pleasant cool morning. He got up with a start and immediately checked his suitcase. Maybe it was all a dream.

The money was there as he had kept it. But the strange discomfort caught up again.

He had to leave for home that day. He decided to donate the money to the old age home near his house. He started feeling better already.

Stood Up...

Newton sat under the apple tree scratching his adam's apple. It was over 30 minutes and his date was still not there.. He was considering himself lucky as he the class nerd got a date with the class beauty..nah the school beauty. He was surprised that she herself came and asked him.. He pinched himself twice to find out if he is dreaming..it hurt he was not.
But now he was getting a funny feeling again that he would be stood up. He kept looking at the apples above hoping one of them would fall and he can eat it. He was getting hungry. She said she would get shepherd's pie so he had eaten less lunch at home as well. He was so looking forward to the shepherds pie.
15 minutes..30 minutes..45 minutes.. no she did not come..an apple fell.. he quit thinking about why she stood him up and started thinking as to why the appple fell down and did not fly...The rest is of course history and physics lessons for all of us. Who would have found the law of gravity if he was not stood up?
As they say behind every successful man is a woman.