Ramu began to run.

At some distance, he saw a small hut. He began to run furiously. There were four people inside the hut. In the meantime, lightening struck and whizzed past his right ear.

Ramu was shivering.

One of the men said, “Look, what is this boy doing here in this horrible darkness of the night?”

“I think Lord Indra is furious today, and He has tried to kill the boy with his thunderbolt,” said the second.

The third said, “He might be a magician, returning from the cremation ground over there!”

The fourth said, “That’s why, even the thunderbolt could not harm him!”

Seeing him approach their hut, they shut the door.

Ramu was near the hut and he said, “Please, let me come inside. I am absolutely soaked in the rain.”

One of the four men said, “Go away from here!

“I will go away when the rain stops,” said Ramu.

“You are a sorcerer, and we can easily recognize you!” said the second.

Ramu did not know what to do.

“Go away from here!” they said in unison.

Ramu began to run towards his house. It was very cold and his whole body was shivering.

When, after the rain, the four men came to the village and talked about that boy.

“No, this boy, Ramu, is not a sorcerer. I know him,” said one of Ramu’s friends.

An old man said, “You don’t know anything. Some magicians look like us but they are very dangerous.”

“He can make people disappear with a wave of his hand. Ghosts and vampires are his friend,” said a man, pulling at his cigarette.

The old man said, “You are right. I think, he got this power in his childhood.”

People had begun to talk and rumours floated in all directions. The boy, who was cultured, religious, and noble, had become the most dangerous person, in the village. No one can really understand human psychology. Though living together for many years, a seed of suspicion can take them against a particular person.

Ramu did not know that they were talking about him in and around his village. But when he heard the reports, he lost his mental balance; he began to act like a mad man. He was afraid of fellow human beings. He was hurt that they were trying to prove which was not there.

Some people are, perhaps, born to criticize others; they rejoice in the plight of others; they spread rumous and create an ambience of fear and terror. These very human beings insult, beat, and kill, Socrates, Christ, and other great men, and chase Buddha out of their villages and towns.

One day, a villager finds hat one of his sheep has suddenly died. He blames Ramu for the death of his sheep. He says that it is the effect of Ramu’s magic.