Gift wrapped in deceit

Sandhya unwraps an act of deceit.

Sandhya had just finished her Class 12 Board exams. Since her father’s passing away last year, her mother worked as a domestic helper to provide for them. Sandhya wanted to take up some work during the holidays to support her mother. Her next-door neighbour Vanitha, who worked as a sales girl at Ruby’s Gift Shop, got Sandhya a job at the store’s gift-wrapping section.

Sandhya was a quick learner and impressed the store manager by wrapping the gifts beautifully. She collected the artificial flowers which were to be discarded from the shop, painted them, and used them to decorate the wrapped gifts. She also used ribbons and made pom-poms to use with the wrappers. The customers loved her creativity.

One day, a woman asked Vanitha to help her in buying a gift for a 10-year-old boy for about ₹500. Vanitha showed her a train set. The woman grabbed it and went to pay for it. At the billing counter, when she got to know the price of the train set was ₹550, the woman became angry. “I wanted a gift for ₹500. Not ₹550!” she yelled at Vanitha.

The woman then proceeded to the gift-wrapping section. “Scratch out the price from this,” she ordered. Sandhya complied. “And give me a gold-coloured gift wrapper. I will wrap the gift myself,” the woman added

The following week, the woman returned to the shop again. She purchased a board game for ₹200 and issued the same orders to Sandhya who scratched out the price and handed over another gold-coloured gift wrapper.

That evening, when Sandhya went back home her mother told her that the family whom she worked for had invited them for their son’s birthday party.

At the birthday party, Sandhya heard some women talking about Ruby’s Gift store. Her ears perked up. “The toys at Ruby’s Gift Shop are overpriced. I paid ₹2,000 for a small train set and ₹1,000 for a board game!” one of the women complained.