Mystery solved.
I intentionally left several P5 coins on the side table in my room, pretended to be asleep, and kept half an eye on them. For months now, I had always found myself looking for missing coins around the house. I entertained the idea that an unseen, paranormal force hiding inside our house’s walls was responsible for the coins that seemed to disappear from where I left them. I even considered seeing a doctor because I thought my usually reliable memory was failing me. But that all changed when I decided to set up a trap to catch the culprit.
After almost thirty minutes of waiting, my nephew, whom I fondly call the Promil Kid, entered the room and watched TV. It wasn’t long until he noticed the coins on the table and pocketed them as if they were his own.
I was shocked. For the longest time, what I liked most about my nephew was that he didn’t care about money. Unlike most of the kids in my extended family, he never did approach me and ask for money to buy something. Honestly, whenever I tried to give him cash, he would just look at me and not take it. He’d rather be given food.
That was then.
Apparently, he is now very conscious about the value of coins and what it can do for him. Right after taking the coins, he went out and I followed him to his room.
“Hey, hey,” I said, “why’d you take those? Those are mine.”
“Not anymore, Tito,” he reasoned. “You left them on the desk.”
“That doesn’t make them yours.”
“Please?” He threw one of those I-beg-you-Tito look, which works all the damn time.
“Sure.”
My nephew then took out a giant piggy bank (more like a giant baby bottle bank) from under the bed. It was so heavy he had to roll it on the floor. He could not even lift it up or move it around if not by rolling. One by one he inserted the coins into it. Looking at his savings, he flashed a satisfied smile.
“Is it already P10,000, Tito?” My nephew was eager to know.
“I don’t know. You need to count them.”
“There’s too many coins. I can only count up to 100.”
I joined him on the floor, opened the piggy bank and began counting. It took me more than an hour to finish.
“Eight thousand pesos,” I excitedly told him. “Where’d you get all this money?”
Viewed 1827 times by 677 visitors this month
