Fake Currency(Last Part)

(You can read first part of the story here)

But Mister Jackal was not the one to give up so easily. He said to Mister Clerk, “I am really sorry but I think I would have to use your washroom.”

Even before Mister Clerk could say anything he got up from his chair and hobbled towards the washroom.

“Poor fellow, he can’t even walk properly,” muttered Mister Clerk.

Mister Jackal quietly entered the washroom. The guard was washing his hands. Jackal hit him on his head with the butt of his pistol. The guard was taken by surprise. He collapsed on the floor. Jackal took his gun and locked the door from outside.  At this point Mister Hyena promptly locked the door of the bank from inside.

 “Please give the keys of the safe,” Mister Jackal said to bank manager. Bank manager was a timid, old fellow. Other two employees were young. But they were equally timid. Manager promptly gave him the keys. Mister Jackal opened the safe. It was full of currency notes. Mister Jackal started filling a bag with the cash. 

Mister Hyena abruptly caught hold of his friend’s hand. Mister Jackal glared at him in anger.

“These are all thousand rupees notes. We should not take these currency notes; they could be fake,” Mister Hyena muttered in his ear.

“What do you mean?” said Mister Jackal in anger.

“Other day when we had come to the bank, one of the clerks was telling a customer that some of the notes brought by him were fake.”

“Did the clerk accept the fake notes?”

“No.”

“If he did not accept the fake notes then there would be no fake notes in the bank.”

 “But we should not take a chance. Why don’t we ask the manager?”

Mister Jackal called the manager, “Are there any fake currency notes in your bank? Do you accept fake currency?”

“No, we don’t accept fake currency from customers. But this cash in the safe was sent by our main office. We have not checked these notes. There could be  fake notes in the safe,” said bank manager.

Mister Jackal and Mister Hyena looked at each other. Both of them were confused. Bank manager said, “Can I make a suggestion?”

For once Mister Jackal could not decide. Mister Hyena said, “What is it?”

“If you permit then I will call my main office. I will ask them to send some cash in hundred rupees and fifty rupees notes. There are no fake notes in those denominations. But you will have to promise that you will not harm any of us.”

“How much time will it take for the cash to arrive?” asked Jackal.

“If the cash is available it would be here in half an hour.”

Mister Jackal and Mister Hyena went into a huddle.

“What should we do?” asked Mister Jackal.

“We should accept his suggestion. We will take away all the cash; even the cash which is in the safe. If there are no fake notes in the safe it would be a win-win situation for us. And if there are some fake notes it would not matter.”

“It’s a brilliant idea. Why could not I think of it? Let us ask him to hurry.” Mister Jackal asked the bank manager to quickly call his main office, “If the cash is not here in thirty minutes I will kill one of your employees.”

Bank manager rang the main office and asked them to send five million in cash in hundred and fifty rupees notes.

They had to wait for exactly twenty eight minutes for the cash to arrive. Luckily for the robbers, and unluckily for bank employees, no customer came to the bank in that period.

When they heard a knock, manager opened the door. Outside there were two persons from the main branch with the cash. They were allowed to come in. The robbers were overjoyed. Both of them got busy stuffing the cash in the two bags that they had brought with them. They were so excited that they did not even notice Inspector Hardnose who had quietly entered the bank.  Inspector pointed his two revolvers at them; he was holding one in each hand.

“Will you please raise your hands?” he almost shouted at them. Both of them were stunned, for they had not seen the officer entering the bank.

They were carrying pistols. But their pistols were in their pockets. They knew that now they could not take out their pistols. The manager opened the washroom door. The guard came out. He was slightly injured. But he took his gun and took a position near the main door. The robbers were trapped.

“Well, Mister Robber, there are no fake currency notes in the safe. I lied to you. I wanted an opportunity to call the main office. The call told them that the bank was being robbed for I never call them for cash. I always send a written request. The main office informed the police. The persons who brought the cash are policemen.  There is no escape for you. You had almost robbed the bank. But your silly friend spoiled your game,” bank manager said to Mister Jackal.

Mister Jackal knew that what the manager was saying was right. He had been foolish to make Hyena his partner-in-crime. He was very angry with Mister Hyena; he just wanted to beat the hell out of him. But he knew that he could not do so; not with so many weapons trained at them.

Both the robbers were arrested and sent to jail. In the jail Mister Jackal did beat the hell out of Mister Hyena. That was the end of their partnership.

©i b arora

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Fake Currency

(Part 1)

Mister Jackal and Mister Hyena decided to rob a bank.

“I think we can rob Piggy’s Bank. It is small bank. Only three employees; very few customers; and most of them are senior citizens.  It would be easy to take care of three bored employees and a couple of aged customers,” suggested Mister Jackal.

“But we won’t find large amount of cash. After all the trouble, we may hardly get a few thousand rupees,” said Mister Hyena.

“No, that’s not true. Every bank has a few millions in the safe; even a small bank like Piggy’s Bank would have five or six million,” countered Mister Jackal.

“But I think we should dream big; let’s rob a big a bank,” insisted Mister Hyena.

“Let us not tempt the fate; we have never been caught and I don’t want to get caught robbing a big bank,” said Mister Jackal.

That settled the argument. They decided to rob Piggy’s Bank. In the garb of beggars they went around the bank to choose the escape route.

“Everything should be well planned, even a safe route to escape in case anything goes wrong,” Mister Jackal said to his friend. “Tomorrow you go to the bank as a customer and open an account. Just deposit five hundred rupees.”

“But why do we need an account in the bank?” asked Mister Hyena.

“We don’t need an account. You will go there to observe; I will also come with you. We will observe everything that happens in the bank and everything that is there in the bank,” said Mister Jackal.      

Next day they went to the bank. Mister Hyena filled up a form for opening an account. He went to Mister Clerk, one of the bank employees. Mister Clerk was attending to a customer who had to deposit money.

“Sir, five of these currency notes are fake,” Mister Clerk said to that customer and returned him a few currency notes.

“How can that be? These were given to me by my office and I work in a government office,” the customer argued.

Mister Hyena was attentively listening to this argument. He stretched his neck and looked at the fake currency notes. These were one thousand rupees notes. “How do you know that these notes are fake?” he asked Mister Clerk just out of curiosity.

But Mister Clerk did not reply. He always attended to one customer at a time.

Mister Hyena was not doing what he was supposed to do but Mister Jackal had not been wasting his time. He had been carefully observing everything. He called Mister Hyena and they both left the bank.

“I could not open the account,” Hyena said in irritation.

“You were to observe the layout of the bank and the routine of bank employees and of security guard. What did you observe?” barked Mister Jackal.

“Well, actually I thought I would observe everything after opening the account,” Mister Hyena said timidly.

“Just forget it; I know what we need to know.  Tomorrow we would reach the bank few minutes before one. They close the bank for lunch at sharp one. The security guard is a careless person. He leaves his gun near the washroom to wash his hands. We will take away his gun and lock him in the washroom. Then we will rob the bank.”

“Is it that simple?” asked Hyena, he was a bit astonished.

“Yes,” said Mister Jackal. He was full of confidence.

Next day, as planned, they reached the bank few minutes before 1 PM.  They were not wearing masks on the faces. But they were using false beards and moustaches to disguise their identity.   

(to be continued)

©i b arora

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