Poorryot2 one of the farmers had plenty of cash in bundles of currency but no suitable place or safe to keep. He stuffed it in all the gunny bags and earthen pots normally used to keep grain and store water whenever available. He needed more sacks or pots. He went to his neighbour Poorryot1 for borrowing some sacks.

He learnt that his good friend had gone towards the river bed. Since the river had been dry for a couple of years he couldn’t understand what prompted his friend to go there.

He found his good friend and neighbour hanging himself from the branch of a tree. He ran full speed and caught him in the nick of time.

“Have you gone mad? Why are you committing suicide?” He asked.

“I’ve taken loans from the bank for three years and couldn’t repay them. My crops failed for three years due to drought or bad seeds. This year there is no   fertiliser.” Poorryot1 cried.

“The Government has waived all our loans and allotted 66,000 crores. Don’t you know?’”

“Yes, but the bank informed me that I was not eligible as my land holding is more than what the rules allowed.”

“That is hardly any reason to commit suicide. Come home, I will give you enough to repay your loan.

The Poorryot1 found his neighbour’s house overflowing with cash and currency bundles strewn all over the place.

Poorryot1 collected some of the cash lying all over the floor and on the cots and handed it over to his good friend. “See if this would do?” he said nonchalantly.

Poorryot1 carefully counted the notes and returned half of it. He breathed a sigh of relief and fell prostrate at the feet of his neighbour. “Thank you Anna (brother) for saving my life.”

“Don’t even mention it. What are friends for?” He picked up his neighbour and hugged him.

Meanwhile a convoy of vehicles arrived at the village. Around twenty officials of the IT department alighted from the vehicles and started searching all the houses and collecting plenty of cash. Poorryot2 and other neighbours stood transfixed not knowing what hit them. The officer said that his team was from the Income tax department, flashing his identity card.

The women and children gathered at the centre of the village and looked at the officials with awe.

It didn’t take them long to collect the cash and return to the centre of the village where a charpoy was placed for them. But it took them long to count all the cash and prepare a record of what they collected from each house and total up. They finally arrived at the figure of 23 crores.

They called each one of the poor ryots and asked them to confirm the amounts they collected and asked “Where did you get so much cash from?”

“We sold our land to the owner of the factory that is coming up next to our village.’

“Why did you keep all the cash in your houses?”

“Where else could we have kept it?”

“Haven’t you heard of banks?” asked the officials.

“We thought that the banks only give loans and collect their money back.” The village headman said.

“Have you heard of Income tax and capital gains tax?”

“What are those anyway?”

“You have to pay Capital gains tax on all the gains made by selling your land. We will take this money with us. Here are your receipts with proper signature and seal of our department. Please keep them carefully and come to our office. We will deduct the tax to be paid and return you the remainder. You can keep the money in any bank and you will earn interest on that.”

“Why should we pay tax as we all have pattas to prove that it was our land?” The villagers protested.

“You do not know the rules obviously. We have given you all proper receipts. We are not stealing your money. We will return your money to the last paisa after taking what is due to the Government.” They left leaving all the ryots terribly disappointed.

“Can you imagine 23 crores in a small village which reported three suicides last year?” One official said.

“Anyway our bosses would be very happy. This year we collected 75 crores in the raids against 19 last year in our region.”

“It beats me. This area of Andhra Pradesh is supposed to be poor but the maximum sales of BMW cars are from this region.” The officer added.

“These blokes have so much cash but look so undernourished.”

“We also get good salaries and rewards but when we go to the supermarket we cannot afford to buy many things.”

“Do you remember the song in roti kapda aur makan in which one character sings that earlier he used to go to the market with handful of coins and buy sack full of goods but later taking cash in sacks and bringing fistful of goods?”

“At that time the inflation was still in single digits.”

“It is like ‘water water everywhere but not a drop to dink’.” The officer said with finality.

(Based on a news item in Deccan Chronicle 2^nd July 2008)