When thieves started tracking the footprints of other thieves, the rightful owners stayed inside their houses while the thieves themselves ran out shouting “Thief! Thief!” Yet, the thieves were also plagued by uneasy apprehensions—what if, amid all their shouting of “Thief! Thief!”, the actual owners really woke up? They say that whenever tracks are being followed, the thieves from the previous night’s heist join in to help track the footprints too. But now is the era of CCTV cameras; the thief is captured on video in the act, making it much easier to catch them.
Once upon a time, a clever thief was telling stories about thieves, and in an accidental slip of the tongue, he confessed, “This is how I committed the theft.” For whenever the mirror of the conscience gets sanitized and rid of germs, one begins to see one’s own face first. Then, whatever is on the face is precisely what appears in the mirror.
In the past, peacocks (honest, dignified leaders) stood above thieves, but nowadays, thieves are taking over peacocks. Thieves appear in the artificial guise of peacocks in such a way that it is difficult to harbor any doubt—just as nowadays every ordinary stone outside looks like marble. Similarly, the stones worn in rings are often made of glass and plastic, though most people cannot tell the difference.
It reminds me of a friend who bought an imitation Seiko 5 watch, paired it with Ray-Ban style glasses, got a second-hand jacket dry-cleaned to a shine, and showed up at Yaroo Khan’s dinner party. Well, all went smoothly—now who could tell? Dressed in a tie and a three-piece suit, the fellow looked like a lawyer in a black coat. The truth came out only when the friend sitting next to him started talking, and he began repeatedly tossing out a couple of memorized, rehearsed English words like “Excuse me” and “Actually.” It was as if his mother tongue was burning his mouth, and he was trying to act like a little Englishman. Just then, Jatt Jaro Khan walked up, hugged him, and said, “My friend, yesterday’s shopping of ours from the Ghanta Ghar market looks fantastic! I told you to buy a pair of English shoes, but you opted for a replica of the Kaptaan chappal instead. Look at me, I bought English shoes!” Just like that, they exposed their entire shopping spree, much like drunkards who reveal all their secrets after taking a few sips.
In the same way, today’s thieves, while talking about the thefts of others, are actually revealing their own traits. Those who are accomplices in crime recognize one another—knowing each other, measuring each other’s stature. They are all cows and buffaloes that emerged after drinking water from the exact same pond, smeared in the same mud, telling each other, “You’ve got mud on you!” As the saying goes, the buffalo called the cow black-tailed. Most of the sheep have black faces anyway. Now, if the poor rightful owners go around searching for brown buffaloes with white tails or white-faced sheep, it will take a very long time; it requires time. Once, when such sheep overpopulated Australia, they were culled because there were simply too many of them.
Here, nowadays, it’s not a pinch of salt added to food, but a pinch of food added to salt. One must walk carefully—what else can be expected of those who grew up drinking water from the very same pond?
Syed Ghulam Hyder Shah Qalandri
Kunri, SIndh, Pakistan
