"I Quit"

Once a trader lost everything

He didn't know what to do, how to react?

Thoughts of suicide started coming to his mind.

But he loved his family too much to take that step

The desire to live was too deep in him to let him do it

The dreams that had brought him to the stock market were still young in his mind!

The catastrophic loss had ruined him.

"What will I tell to my parents, my wife?"

"How will I tell it!"

"What will I do now?"

"How will I return the debt?"

.....questions like these started creeping in his idle mind echoing with deafening silence!

He had no answer.

It was all dark before his eyes...

Life seemed like worse than the death.

Death seemed like a soothing lap!

He decided to commit suidice

"I quit" he wrote on a piece of paper and posted it to his home.

He took the bus to the last town up the hill

and walked all the way to the secluded edge.

But as he went near the cliff, fear took over him.

He couldn't gather the courage to take that final step.

He kept standing there for a while.

Suddenly he felt a hand on his right shoulder.

He turned back and saw a feeble old man with long white beard standing behind him.

"Finding it difficult?" the old man asked.

The man was sweating in that winter evening.

He couldn't utter even a word.

"Come with me" said the old man and started to walk towards his hut nearby.

The man started following him.

Inside the hut, the old man gave him a glass of water from his pitcher and asked

"Why do you want to end your life?"

The man told him everything.

"I can't face my family and debtors now." he said.

"Then why didn't you plunge?" the old man asked.

"I am afraid." the man replied.

"Should I tell you the easiest way?" asked the old man.

"What's that?" the man asked.

"Close your eyes." said the old man

The man closed his eyes.

"Now, imagine yourself standing at the edge of the cliff."

The man imagined that he was standing right at the edge.

"Now, look below."

The man looked below.

"What do you see?"

"A deep gorge!"

Now, walk into it.

The man took the step and fell into it....

...and fainted

...in the old man's lap!

After almost half an hour

he woke up and saw the glowing face of the old man!

He couldn't understand what had happened!

"What happened, Baba!"

"You just died!"

"But.....!!!"

"This is your new life, my child!"

"You can consider yourself relieved from all the last life's burdens and debts!"

"Now, go back and face it all as you would have done in your second life."

The man felt a lightening bolt inside him.

He resolved to fight it out!

He went home.

His parents and wife and kids had all gone to sleep waiting for him.

---------------

The next morning the postman came and handed over a letter to him

He tore open it and inside he read

"I quit"

He realised his folly, folded the letter and put it in his purse.

He told it all to his wife and parents and kids

(except his suicide)

he went to his debtors and asked for time

went back to his fellow trader friend and asked for sane advice.

Everytime he faced the heat

he just took out the paper from his purse and read aloud in his heart

"I Quit"