The Forgotten Blanket

Every evening, Ramesh passed by the old man who sat curled near the lamp post at the edge of his street just near to his home. The beggar had no name that anyone knew, just a pair of hollow eyes and a tattered shawl barely clinging to his bony shoulders.

One particularly cold evening, as the wind bit through Ramesh’s coat, he looked at the old man and felt a pang of guilt.

“Wait here,” he said, his voice gentle. “I’ll bring you a warm blanket from home.”

The old man looked up with tired eyes. A faint smile crossed his lips — the first anyone had seen in days.

Ramesh reached home, got caught in conversation, dinner, a phone call, and finally curled up in bed under a warm quilt — the blanket forgotten.

The next morning, as he left for work, he saw a small crowd near the lamp post. The beggar lay still, his eyes closed forever, his body frozen in the night’s cold.

Ramesh stopped in his tracks, heart heavy with the weight of a promise broken. The old man would have lived on as he had all these days as till date he had to trust only his body this time he had hope a hope from the promise of a human who just missed the heart beat to whom he had promised a help to him

Moral 1: Never make promises you don’t intend or remember to keep — it could mean more than you think to someone.

Moral 2: Trust, once given, is fragile — never place your hope blindly in passing words.