ONE of my best friends invited me along with some other friends to his wedding reception two months ago. We decided to attend his wedding programme wearing Punjabi.
When I was about to wear my Punjabi at home, I found that it was not ironed. So I went to the laundry next door with it and found that the shopkeeper-cum-owner of the laundry had just opened his shop. I requested him to iron my Punjabi quickly as I was in a hurry to attend my friend's wedding reception. The shopkeeper told me that it would take half an hour to heat the iron and requested me to come an hour later. I preferred to wait at the shop. The man took the punjabi, sprinkled water on it and started pressing it with the iron gently. I could see him burning my punjabi slightly due to excessive heat of the iron. I felt thoroughly disappointed and he was also baffled at the suddenness of the incident. He felt extremely repentant and wanted to make good for the damage done to me, but I refused and came back home. I wore another Punjabi and attended the wedding reception.
A few days later when I visited the laundry to get my clothes ironed, the man ironed those properly but refused to accept any money for ironing. Another day, I went to his shop to take delivery of my clothes he again refused to take any payment from me for ironing the clothes. Instead he requested me to communicate with my brother. I was a bit surprised. I came back and told my brother about the incident, he informed me that the laundry would compensate me for my loss by ironing 50 clothes free of cost. I was stupefied by his honesty. I did not misbehave with the laundry owner on that day nor did I ask for any compensation, but he was compensating me willingly out of repentance. I was astonished to discover his honesty as honesty is a rare material nowadays. Being a small laundry owner with a limited monthly income of not more than Tk10,000, he had such a wonderful heart that he told my brother about compensating my loss by ironing my clothes for sometime free of cost. I was deeply moved and thanked him for his honesty. This incident has made me optimistic about society and I started thinking that there are still some good people.
Mohammad Zonaed Emran
MNC Banking Unit
Mutual Trust Bank Limited
Corporate Head Office, Dhaka.
