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The Counterfeit Coin
by JASWANT SINGH NEKITranslated from Punjabi by RAVINDER SINGH
The year was 1933. I was a third grader then.
Somehow, a silver rupee coin made it into my hands. I could tell it was a fake but that did not stop me from trying to use it and pass it off as real.
Each time I tried, it was tossed back at me with a scowl.
So I decided not to use it anymore.
But for some reason, I did not want to part with it. I carried it around in my shirt pocket at all times.
One day, as I was returning home from school, with my school bag tucked under my arm, I was approached by a Muslim faqir, [literally, a poor man, but used to describe wandering religious mendicants in India].
“Son, feed an old man, won’t you?” he said, looking at me.
“But,” I protested, “I have no money on me.”
He shot back, “Yes, you do,” adding, “You have that rupee, don’t you?”
“But that is a counterfeit,” I explained.
“I know. But it will work today,” he said.
“If it works, I will buy you a snack,” I assured him as we walked to the corner bakery.
Wanting to make sure that the coin would work, and not have it thrown back at me, I quickly took it out of my pocket and handed it to the baker. Much to my surprise, he did not return the coin. Instead, he asked me what I needed.
“Give the old man food for eight annas and return the rest to me.” [One Rupee = 16 annas.]
The owner of the bake-shop motioned the old man to a table as he pulled out change from his register and returned it to me.
As I bade goodbye to the old man and turned to leave, he whispered in my ear, “If our motives are pure, God’s grace will surely smile and turn the counterfeit into the real.
"Not just fake coins, but Grace turns phonies into genuine humans as well!”
[From Jaswant Singh Neki’s Jinaa(n) Disandayan Durmat Vanje.]
November 22, 2011
Conversation about this article
1: Sangat Singh (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), November 22, 2011, 12:08 PM.
As a kid, I remember I had a counterfeit coin that I was about to discard when my childhood friend Inderjit stopped me, saying 'Oye, these coins can be used for mathaa tekna in the gurdwara!" There was even a verse: "parakh khajaanai paa-ay say bahurh naa khoti-aa" [GGS:520.18] - "Those who are assayed and placed in the Lord's treasury are not declared counterfeit again." See the devil citing scripture to his purpose!
2: Baldev Singh (Bradford, United Kingdom), November 22, 2011, 3:11 PM.
Very powerful tale!
3: Ravinder Singh (Westerville, Ohio, U.S.A.), November 24, 2011, 8:47 AM.
To Baldev Singh ji: this is not a tale but a true incident from Dr. Jaswant Singh Neki's life which he has narrated in a book, "Jinah Disandrian Durmat Vanje."