The stolen diamond

A very, very rich man had a diamond shop. His assistant was extremely sincere and devoted. This worker asked the owner for a loan so that he could make preparations for his daughter’s marriage.

The owner said, “No, no, I do not give loans. You are a good worker. I give you a salary, but I cannot give you a loan. I do not trust people, so I do not give loans.”

The worker was miserable. He was worried that although his daughter was still beautiful, she was getting old. In a few years, who would marry her? He said to himself, “What can I do now?” He was thinking of going to some nice, kind-hearted man to borrow money.

Later that day, a wealthy man came to the shop and wanted to buy a most beautiful, most precious diamond. While he was selecting the diamond, the owner suddenly had to attend to an urgent matter, so he said to his assistant, “You take care of him. I have to leave now.”

The worker accepted the rich man’s payment and put the diamond in a small package. Meanwhile, a very old friend of the rich man saw him in the shop and came inside. They embraced and talked to each other for a long time. Finally, the rich man and his old friend went away together. When he left, the rich man forgot to take the diamond.

The boss had left, so the worker was the only person in the shop. The worker said to himself, “At this time in my life I have to do something so important. My daughter is supposed to get married.” What temptation can do! He said, “Now this is the time for me to act. The owner has left, and the rich man has forgotten to take his diamond. He is so rich. Nothing will happen if he does not get this particular diamond. He will be able to buy another diamond.”

The worker put the diamond, which he had already packed nicely, in his pocket and started walking to a nearby pawn shop to sell it. He was practically at the pawn shop when his conscience started haunting him. He said to himself, “I have been honest all my life. What am I doing? My daughter wants to get married, and I badly need money. If I can sell this diamond, then my daughter will have a beautiful wedding and she will be very honoured. She will be so happy, and her husband will be so happy. All right, just once in my life let me do this, although I know it is very bad.”

When the worker reached the pawn shop, he discovered that his pocket had a hole and the diamond had fallen out! He said, “O God, You have saved me, You have saved me, You have saved me!” Then again, he was extremely afraid of what would happen the next day. His conscience was bothering him ruthlessly. He said to himself, “All my life I have been such a nice, honest man. Now what have I done? I have lost the diamond, so tomorrow I will be punished. This is the result of my wrong action! I did something bad, so now God will punish me. Anyway, let me see what my fate will be, now that I have become so bad.”

The worker went to the temple next door to the shop and started praying and crying: “God, save me, save me, save me! What have I done? What have I done? Now I will be blamed by my boss. He will not believe me, no matter what I say. And I will also be blamed by the rich man.”

The worker decided that if sincerity had any value, then he should tell the whole story to his boss and to the fellow who had bought the diamond. He said, “Let them punish me. How could I become so bad?”

Early the next morning, the rich man who had bought the diamond started walking toward the shop. All of a sudden, he saw a young man pick up something from the street. It happened that this young fellow was the servant of the assistant who had stolen the diamond. This assistant had gone to work, and the servant was carrying a special message from the assistant’s wife, asking him to buy something on his way home.

The rich man said to the young servant, “Let me see what you have found.”

What did he see? It was exactly the same diamond that he had bought the day before! The rich man told him, “This is mine! I dropped it yesterday.” He was sure that he had dropped it while he was walking with his dearest friend.

The servant did not question him because he was a very rich man. The rich man said, “I am taking my diamond, and I am giving you a very large sum of money.” Immediately he gave ten thousand rupees to the servant.

The servant said, “What shall I do with this money?”

The rich man said, “You deserve a reward. Just take it.” Then he continued walking.

The servant said to himself, “My master is so nice, so kind to me. He is dying with worries about his daughter’s marriage. I like him, and I also like his daughter so much. Let me give this money to my master.”

Meanwhile, the assistant in the diamond shop was dying of anxiety. He opened the shop, but then he said, “My boss will come late today. Now let me go to the temple and pray again.”

Again he went to the temple to pray to God for forgiveness. He said, “God, tell me what to do. My boss will be furious, and the man who bought the diamond will also be furious.”

The servant saw his master entering into the temple to pray. He went up to his master and said, “I have such good news, such happy news!”

The assistant said, “What kind of good news?”

The servant said, “You see, your wife asked me to bring you a message. On the way, I found something in the street. I did not see you in the shop, so I was about to go back home when I found you here in the temple. Now let me give you some good news: I have received some money out of the blue, and I am giving it to you.” Then the servant gave his master the money.

The assistant asked, “How did you get this money?”

The servant said, “I found a diamond in the street, and the owner came up to me to claim it. He said that yesterday he bought it from the shop where you work, and on his way home he dropped it. Since I found it, he was so pleased with me that he gave me ten thousand rupees. What do I need this money for? You are so kind to me. Your wife is also so kind to me. You have made me so happy by accepting me as your servant. Therefore, I am giving you the money.”

Look how God saved this fellow! On the way to the pawn shop to sell the diamond, he lost it. His own servant found it, and the man who had bought it retrieved his diamond. The servant was amply rewarded and he gave the entire amount to his master. Later, when the daughter came to know what had happened, she hugged the servant and said, “You have saved me! Now I will be able to get married.”

The assistant went back into the temple, crying and crying and crying with gratitude to God. When his boss came to the diamond shop, he saw that it was closed. Finally, the assistant arrived with his servant.

The boss asked, “Why are you late today? What have you been doing? Why are you crying?”

The assistant said, “Today I was in the mood to pray because God is so kind to me.” He was still crying out of sheer gratitude to God for saving him.

The assistant was about to tell the whole story. He was going to be very frank about what he had done, but the servant stopped him. The servant said, “I found a diamond in the street on my way to the shop. A rich man came up to me and said it was his, so he gave me a large amount of money. He said he had dropped the diamond in the street.”

The owner of the diamond shop was quite pleased. Then his sincere assistant said, “Please, please, I want to tell you the whole story.”

He confessed the whole thing. The owner of the diamond shop was simply shocked. He said, “How can you be so bad?” Then he fired the assistant.

Soon the rich man came to learn that the assistant had been fired. The rich man himself went to give the assistant a very, very large amount of money. He said, “You are an honest man. You did one thing wrong out of desperate necessity for the sake of your daughter’s marriage. Now you can open up a diamond shop of your own.”

The marriage did take place, and the man opened up a shop with the money that the rich man had given him. Soon he also became very rich.

Bad people can do many bad things every day and it does not bother them. But when good people do one bad thing, their conscience tortures them so much. They really suffer until they have rectified their mistake.