Two rupees

What can you get for two rupees? A banana; a candy bar; a paracetamol; sometimes one drumstick and what else? Read on.

Yesterday I got into a BMTC bus and when the conductor approached, I gave him 10 Rs not knowing how much the ticket would cost. Those who have lived here can agree to this - one can never know how many different kinds of city buses we have here and cost of ticket . Anyway, the conductor gave me 6 rupees back and moved on. First, I was surprised because I had never seen bus fare being this low and more so because the bus looked one of the new kinds (where the tickets are higher for no particular reason than that they look new and colorfully painted) And second he forgot (it's called benefit of the doubt) to give me the ticket.

So, I waited for him to return and mentioned that he forgot to issue me the ticket. He looked at me with disdain(!) and asked me (again) where I wanted to go, to which I replied. Guess what he did next? He snatched the 6 rupees from my half-clenched fist, put that in his bag, thrust 4 rupees in my hand and before I could blink, thrust a 6 rupees ticket in my hand. Now everything became clear to me.

It was an offer. Or to be precise - a deal. Integrity and conscience for 2 rupees. That one is hard to resist, no?