Stolen bananas end up back in owner’s hands, at a price

• Upon returning home and checking his garden, the farmer realises that the bananas he saw in the boutique were the ones stolen from his garden
• The farmer known for his generosity, often donating his crops for social activities in the village

The owner of the home garden is a farmer in the Hasalaka  area whose main occupation is paddy cultivation. In addition, he  cultivates coconut, banana, and vegetables to support his family of four  children.  

He is constantly facing the menace of thieves who enter the  home garden at night and steal his crops. Quite often, bunches of  bananas, areca nuts, and coconuts are stolen from his garden, much to  his anxiety. On pitch-dark nights and rainy days, manioc and yams too  are at the mercy of thieves.  

However, he is never moved when he finds his crops stolen.  Instead, he sympathises with them and says, “Let those miserable ones  take away anything they want and eat or sell them.” The Good Samaritan never hesitates to donate his crops for  any social activity in the village, demonstrating that he is a man of  high calibre.  

His paddy field is in the Minipe agricultural colony, about  four kilometres away from his home. On the day of the incident, on his  way back from the paddy field, he stepped into a nearby tea kiosk to  rest for a while over a cup of tea. The ripe bunch of bananas hanging  from the roof drew his attention, and he felt the urge to buy a bunch of  plantains for his daughter’s children, who relished “Kolikuttu”  plantains.  

While paying for the two combs of plantains he purchased,  along with the tea, he inquired from the boutique owner about the person  who had brought the bunch of bananas. The latter said a certain person  had brought and sold it.  

“Surely he must have stolen it from a home garden. He is  not an individual who cultivates anything or is used to working with a  mammoty,” said the farmer, without the slightest idea that the bunch of  bananas had come from his own garden.  In the evening, while walking in his home garden to check  on the crops, he was shocked to find that the bunch of bananas he had  seen the previous day was missing. At once, he had a brainwave about  what had happened.  

“I can well understand it. That scoundrel has cut and sold  the bunch of bananas to the boutique,” he whispered to himself,  returning home with a sorrowful expression on his face.  

His wife, astonished to see a change in her husband, inquired what the matter was.  

“Not only did that scoundrel steal the bunch of bananas  from the home garden, but I also had to buy the first comb with my  hard-earned money,” he said, pointing to the two combs of “Kolikuttu”  plantains he had brought in the afternoon on his way back from the paddy  field.