In plain words
So give Me five rupees and take these books,’ I said. Then the boy, very happily, brought five rupees and gave them to Me. In those days five rupees did not mean rupee notes. It was all small change. He poured it into his pockets till they were full and came to Me. All together it made a bundle this big. Where was I to put that bundle? He had put even that change in an old cloth, tied it up and given it. As the bundle was knotted tight, it tore. All the coins in it fell all over the room, clink, clink. Hearing the noise, the lady of the house came out from inside. ‘Where did you come by all this money, boy? You took it from my box, didn't you!’ Browbeating so, she dealt two blows. Then the boy said, ‘Madam, I myself gave the change. I have taken the books.’ Then she said, ‘A thief stands witness for a thief, boy!’ and took all that money herself. The next day all the Scout boys were going off together. Where were they going? They were going to Puṣpagiri, near Cuddapah. I was in Kamalapuram then. A temple fair was going on there. There, the whole ground was sand! They had brought cattle. Wherever you looked, it was cattle trading! My words to the drill teacher: ‘What would I do, coming at night? I will come at dawn,’ I told him. A word once given must not be broken, must it! As day broke I got up and went on foot, walking and walking. I walked five miles. And when at last I got there, everyone had gone off to have tiffin. I did not have a single coin in My pocket. What was I to eat? ‘We will see about it later,’ and so I wandered about, keeping out of sight of all the other boys. My classmates, though, kept on looking for Me: ‘Has Raju come? Has Raju come?’ So that none of them would see Me, I went to a cement trough close by to wash My face. They wash cattle with the water in it. All the water was unclean. But what could I do? When there is nothing else, that very water is the Gaṅgā! I drank a little of its water, washed My face and came away. When I came out and looked, someone had forgotten a bundle of bīḍīs and an anna on a rock. I had no need of these bīḍīs, had I! So I buried them in the sand.