c0$m0$ eniGm@tic mir@ge: IndiHappyHours# A moment of Innocent Truth!

I was in 8^th standard. All the students were waiting for distribution of answer sheets of exam paper, some scared, some eager, and some indifferent. I was kind of excited to see how much had I scored. The Social Science teacher came with the bundle of papers in her hand. Though I was a good student, I had never liked social science much.

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She started calling out students one by one. I was waiting eagerly for my turn. It was a long wait and my heart had started racing a little bit. My turn however came in the last. Teacher applauded me for having scored the highest marks. I felt so excited, cheeks turned red. Scoring highest in a subject I really didn’t like much gave me a happy feeling.

Ma’am told everybody to check the total and to get it corrected in case of any mistake. There were a few mistakes in totals and students were going to ma'am to increase their marks. I also calculated my total hoping to increase one or two marks. But as I totaled, I realized that I was actually given 5 more marks because of totaling mistake. I checked again if mistake was on my part by chance. It was confirmed that my total was wrong. I got a little upset. Just now I had got applauds for scoring the highest marks when actually I was not the one with highest marks. I didn’t want to spoil all the praises that I had just got. I thought I would keep silent and not tell ma’am about it.

Just then a friend asked for my paper as she wanted to compare the answers. I was a little apprehensive, What if she totaled my marks! What if she came to know about my dishonesty! Hesitantly I handed her my paper and kept observing her as she compared the answers. She took quite a long time in comparing each and every word I had written with what she had written. I kept feeling nervous till finally she returned my paper. Then something clicked me and as she returned my paper, I straightway went to ma’am and told her about the totaling mistake. She totaled again and made the correction. She smiled and told me to work harder to get the highest score. But she made it a point to tell the whole class about my honesty and appreciated me for my gesture. The moment I told the truth I felt lighter and happier. Moreover, I got all praises, if not for scoring the highest atleast for telling the truth.