The greedy bug bites Mini and Moni

One day Mini and Moni were swimming about in the warm afternoon sun when Moni said “Hey, let’s go in a little further today”.

“Ok” said Mini and they swam further into the ocean until they were very far from the places they normally visited. 

They were just about to turn back when they saw some wooden chest lying on the ocean bed. Curious Moni immediately swam up to the boxes to have a closer look. It was apparent the boxes had been lying around for some time. The wood had rotten and the metal had rusted. Some of the boxes were open. Of those that were open, most were quite empty. But Mini and Moni soon found a box that was full of gold coins, precious stones and jewels. There were necklaces, bangles, rings, earrings. And all were studded with what Mini and Moni felt sure were the priciest of precious stones. Mini and Moni’s eyes opened wide in surprise. 

 

They could hardly believe what they so clearly saw in front of them.

“Oh my God” said Mini “What splendid jewels”.

“Yes” agreed Moni “Such beauty. This must have fallen out of a sunken ship”.

“So this belongs to nobody??” asked Mini.

“Well, it now belongs to us since we are the ones who found it” said Moni.

“Really? So all this belongs to us??” asked Mini overjoyed.

“Yes” said Moni “But we need to keep quite about this for some time”.

“Ok” said Mini.

They spent the next couple of hours trying the bangles, necklaces and earrings one by 

 

one.  

When it was getting dark and it was time for them to go home, they started thinking how to get the treasure chest to their ocean bed.

“Moni, we cannot pull the chest to our home. We will need to move the jewels little by little every day” said Mini.

Mini and Moni quickly took a bangle, necklace and earring each.

“What if someone finds the rest of the treasure when we are not around? They might take it away or we might have to share the treasure with them” said Moni.

“Let us bury it under the sand” said Mini.

“Good Idea!!” said Moni and both started piling sand over the treasure chest until it was not visible at all. They then went off to their ocean bed and quickly hid the jewels they had carried with them between some rocks.

As night crept in, Tutella saw that Mini and Moni were very quiet and often peeped between the rocks near their beds.

“What’s going on? What is between those rocks?” asked Tutella.

“Nothing at all” Mini lied.

“You seem to be searching for something. Let me help you find it” said Tutella.

“Oh No! Please don’t. We are really not looking for anything” said Moni afraid that Tutella might come and discover the jewels.

“Well, something seems to be very suspicious” said Tutella and went back to sleeping.

Mini and Moni were very restless throughout the night. 

The next morning, Tutella asked them “Tell me truthfully, what are both of you hiding? I could hear you moving about and whispering to each other the whole night.”

“Nothing at all” Mini and Moni lied again, feeling very guilty for they were not used to lying to anybody and Tutella was such a close friend who had helped them several times in the past.

“Let me check” said Tutella “Just to satisfy my curiosity”. So saying she swam up to the 

rocks and peeped in. 

Tutella could hardly believe what she saw. 

   

“Oh my God! Where did you get these?” She asked.

Mini and Moni’s hearts grew heavy thinking that Tutella will now spread the word and they will have to share the jewels with everybody. 

“That will leave us with so little jewels” they sighed to themselves.

“Answer me” said Tutella “Where did you find these?”

“A little away from here” said Mini and Moni feeling downcast.

“You know jewels and other lost treasures mean trouble, right?” asked Tutella.

“No, why do you say that” asked Mini and Moni.

“Because they bring treasure hunters to the sea bed” said Tutella.

“Who are the treasure hunters” asked Mini and Moni.

“Treasure hunters are humans who search the ocean bed for lost treasures” explained Tutella. “The treasure hunters might come looking for treasures here and if they find these jewels, they will dig up the soil hoping to find more treasure and disturb all the sea folks here. And who knows, some of us might also get harmed”.

“Oh! We sure don’t want that to happen” said Mini.

“Yes, we just wanted those jewels because it makes us look, oh, so beautiful” said Moni.

“Yes, I am sure they will look very beautiful on you” laughed Tutella “But you should better go keep them back before they cost you your lives”.

Mini and Moni immediately picked up the jewels and swam back to the treasure chest. They almost cried a few tears as they kept the jewels back into the box.

That night, their hearts were heavy thinking about the beautiful jewels that they almost owned and then had to give up.

“Tutella, what do treasure hunters do with the treasures they find?” asked Mini.

“They sell them and make a lot of money” said Tutella.

“Then they must be very rich” said Moni.

“Yes, some of them are” said Tutella.

“I know how we can do something positive out of this” said Moni. “We should give those treasures to poor people who really need them. It will make a big difference in their lives”.

“Yes” agreed Mini. “And it will also help us to feel better about having to give up the jewels”.

Mini and Moni spent most of the night thinking how they could do this. Finally they decided to take the help of Sally the seal. 

They met Sally the next day and showed her the treasure. Like Tutella, Sally was also surprised to see the treasure. 

She said “Wow” and just examined each of the jewels one by one. 

Finally, she said to Mini and Moni “It is very large hearted of you to want to give it away”.

“To be honest, we were almost tempted to keep it all to us. But they are of very little value to us. They will more valuable to the poor folks living on the shore” said Mini.

“Will you be able to get them to the shore, Sally?” asked Moni.

“Sure. My friends and I will take this little by little and spread it across the shore where the poor fishermen live” said Sally.

“That would be great” said Mini and Moni.

From then on, for the next fourteen nights, Sally and her friends took the jewels and spread it across different parts of the shore the mighty ocean graced.   

 

When the fishermen living across the shoreline woke up the next day, they saw the beaches scattered with jewels. That was the luckiest day for them. Some of them gave it to their loved ones, some sold them to meet their needs and some invested them wisely and grew rich over time. Whichever way the jewels were used, they brought smiles of joy and spread laughter and happiness in all the lives they touched. Which was all Mini and Moni wanted in the end.


If you liked the story, do leave your comments