Believing: The Milkman Story
There was once a milkman. He delivered milk every morning to his customer homes on bicycle before. But now he was much richer, so he delivered milk on his dusty old scooter, with milk cans tied on a metal rack. His milk was more expensive than the others, but people said that his milk was the best. One day, he was sick and asked his visiting son to go out and deliver it for him. His son hesitated as he was no longer used to delivering milk with his father like when he was young. As the father tried to get out of his bed, his son said. “You rest father. Let Bhola go instead?” he suggested. “Bhola has already delivered to the nearby homes, but the number seven home is farther and needs the scooter to go there,” his father replied. The son thought about his father, who lived a simple life. Migrating from the village to the city a long time ago, he had raised the family and educated him well. He had worked very hard all his life not just for money but also because he loved to work. He had also instilled that same respect for all work in him as well. “Alright, then, I will take it for number seven then,” milkman’s son said.
When the milkman’s son came to deliver the milk to the number seven home, he asked the owner – “Sir, aap kya kaam karte hain?” – what work do you do?” The homeowner replied that he is a university professor and a petroleum scientist for an oil company. He finds ways to make petrol more efficient, less pollutant and more profitable. The milkman’s son brightened and said, “Ah, like we milkmen add water to our milk before selling to make more profit!” At this the homeowner smiled and politely lectured the clearly uneducated young man “No Bhaiyya! petrol is not milk. It does not mix with water. And for profit, you know, people pay for quality. Look at your own milk. You do not mix it with water but charge more than the rest. We get premium quality milk and you get more profit. That’s a win for both.” Changing the subject, the homeowner asked, “and by the way, where is your father? I am seeing you again after many years?” Milkman’s son nodded sheepishly and informed that his father was sick. And he was visiting home and wanted to help with the delivery while the father recovered. Milkman’s son bade his goodbyes to the homeowner and left.
After reaching home, the milkman’s son called the family servant and said, “Bhola, from tomorrow, add twice the amount of water in number seven home’s milk. Homeowner there is a very trusting man. He does not know that we have been adding water to his milk every day. Adding a little more water will be fine. He will not know the small difference!”
Next day, the milkman’s son came to deliver again and rang the doorbell, announcing as milkman. Homeowner was busy reading his daily horoscope on Whatsapp forwarded messages. At the end of the message, it said to forward it ten others within ten minutes for good luck. Slightly annoyed with the interruption, he called his daughter to answer the door and get milk but got no response. Reluctantly, he got up and answered the door, and accepted the milk, and picked up his phone again.
Homeowner noticed that the milkman had stopped at the door and was coming back. Feeling irritated, “What now?” the homeowner asked. “Sir, can you please give back that milk container for a second please,” he said.
Puzzled, the homeowner asked why? But handed him the milk container. The milkman’s son emptied the container in a nearby drain and refilled it with milk from another container. Explaining, he said, yesterday he should not have joked about adding water to petrol but should have mentioned the newly developed corn-based ethanol additives for petrol, which improved both efficiency and profits while lowering the pollutants. “But I did not know, if you were already doing that,” milkman said.
“But that is no reason to throw that milk in the drain?” homeowner asked.
“Ah!” replied the milkman’s son, “that’s because that milk had twice the water that was normally added to your milk every day, and my conscience stopped me from taking advantage of your unawareness of that fact. Surely, our milk has less water compared to other milkmen, but you seemed not to notice it. So, I figured that if I gradually increased more water in your milk, you will probably not notice that too. But now it felt wrong to take advantage from your trusting and believing nature.”
The following day, the elder milkman showed up himself. He said he was feeling better and was back on his delivery rounds. The homeowner said to the milkman that he was impressed by his son’s honesty and ethical behavior. So why not send him to his office next day after eleven and he will find him a job as an Office Assistant at his workplace. The milkman thanked the homeowner for his generosity but demurred that his son is now well settled abroad and not looking for a job. But the homeowner, would not have it any other way. He said, “Look, I am getting late for my office now, but he is your only son and I believe that he should be here with you in your old age. Just send him to my office after eleven tomorrow.” And before any further word he left the elder milkman standing and perplexed at his door and headed for his office.
Next day, the homeowner, was at his office. Meeting room was set up with coffee, laptop and a slide projector, and the staff was waiting for the board meeting with the investors, who were visiting from Dubai. Just then the secretary walked in with the message that the board members are running and hour late and will now be arriving at 11 am. He looked at his watch and walked back to his office to wait. In the lobby, he stopped at the reception desk and told the receptionist that one young man Ajay will be coming to meet him at 11 am and he should wait here in the lobby until after the board meeting.
Just before eleven he stepped out into the lobby to see through the glass entrance doors that three black Mercedes S-Class cars had just arrived, and the board members and investor were stepping out of it. He also noticed that the younger milkman had also arrived and was walking through the lobby glass doors. As he walked to greet the board members, he nodded to the milkman’s son, and whispered, “wait here in the lobby, until I finish my important meeting.” And he proceeded to meet the visiting team. From the corners of his eyes he noted that the milkman’s son was still standing there and had started talking with an incoming board member. With mounting anger at this young man’s insolence, he walked to admonish him. But before he could say a word, the board member, stepped forward and spoke, “Dr. Doodhwala, please meet Dr. Guru. He is a senior professor of chemistry at the university here and our Chief Scientist at the Research Center. And Dr. Guru, please meet Dr. Doodhwala, Ph. D. in finance from Columbia University and MBA from Harvard. Dr. Doodhwala is the owner of our investment company along with his partner His Royal Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Sultan.”
The board meeting was a success, where Dr. Guru explained that lab test results were encouraging for increasing bio-ethanol additives to fuel from ten to twenty percent mixing ratio but will have to wait for regulatory approvals.
In the evening, Dr. Guru returned home happy, and excited with his successful day at work. On his way home he had also picked up freshly made vegetarian samosas from the shop, next to his office. His wife greeted him excitedly at the door, and said, “Come in, look who is visiting. It is Meera, our daughter’s friend and Sharma’jis daughter. She is married to Ajay. I am serving tea and chicken kababs. Come and join us.”
“Ajay? Who is Ajay?” Professor saheb enquired.
“You forget! Ajay is our milkman’s son you know!” she replied.
“Yes, yes. That Ajay Doodhwala. But wait, Meera would be a vegetarian. Right? I had lunch with Ajay this afternoon after our meeting and he had particularly ordered a vegetarian meal. I believe that she will not eat any of your chicken kababs. But no worries. I have brought some fresh vegetarian samosas. I am sure that she will like them.”
The wife brought the second plate of chicken kababs to the table, and smilingly enquired, “Meera, how do you like the kababs?”
“Hello Uncle, and wow! Chicken kababs are truly yummy, Aunty!” Meera replied, wiping her lips and fingers, “You must give me its recipe please. I will make it for Ajay at home. He likes kababs even more than me, but he goes vegetarian in restaurants while he is out traveling!”
Dr. Guru took his first bite into his chicken kabab and agreed. “Good kababs!” Settling comfortably in his favorite sofa chair he pulled out his phone and clicked on the whatsapp. Thirty new forwarded messages. Deleting the first one which he believed to be a spam about how social media posts can be made virally popular by mixing small amount of misinformation with mostly true facts and using the confirmation bias of the reader with their prior beliefs; he noticed the next one, a 5-minute recipe for making cholesterol free vegetarian samosas using air fryer. Taking another bite into the chicken kabab, he asked, “What’s your whatsapp number Meera? I will forward this samosa recipe to you. I believe that you will like it!”