The curious case of umbrellas

Lal Singh

SOMETIMES our actions and reactions are driven by a voice from within. This is what happened with me many years ago when I was serving in the merchant navy.

Our ship had a brief halt at Singapore for fuel bunkering, before proceeding on a long voyage to the west coast of the US. As the bunkering got delayed, after leaving instructions for the duty engineer, I left my ship for a visit ashore in Singapore. As I was leaving the wharf, where our ship was berthed, it started drizzling, which is quite normal in tropical Singapore. Since I did not carry an umbrella, I went to borrow one from our local ship agents’ office, which was nearby.

After taking an umbrella from one of the persons working there, while promising to return it, I made my way to a well-visited store. And as is an admirable habit of Singaporeans, I left my borrowed umbrella at the rack at the entrance to the store.

While leaving, I took the umbrella and strolled to another shop, where the drill of leaving the wet item outside was repeated. This was also done in the other shops I visited. Since the rain had stopped for a while, I forgot to pick up the umbrella from one store and went to another. As I was leaving that place, the rain returned.

Since now I had no umbrella, I conveniently picked up a similar one from the rack. Nearing my destination, I had a nagging doubt about my ‘clever’ solution. I returned to the store and kept the umbrella back in the rack. Then I went to another shop, bought a new umbrella and took a cab to the ship agents’ office. There I explained to its visibly pleased owner what all had happened.

For a few moments, I had harboured a silly thought that I did not steal the umbrella in the real sense, but had just exchanged it with someone else’s, that I was justified in carrying out this strange but bad barter. This was a situation where the line between what’s right and what’s wrong got blurred. But I was guided by a voice from within, just like a navigator showing us the right path, and finally I took the correct decision.