The Parcel That Never Reached

According to a recent news item-railways, air companies and other carriers pay fantastic sums every year as compensation for parcels and goods that could not be delivered and got lost in transit. It reminded me of an amusing incident relating to a parcel that never reached. Imagine your feelings if you suddenly discover that the sweets you have consumed (without payment of course) were really the left over from the marriage feast, sent by the bride’s father to his sweeper who was recently transferred to another town just before the wedding. The sweeper of our locality visited the station everyday to inquire about the parcel which the expected from his former master. He even told the concerned people what he expected to get. But even before he had received the receipt and gone to collect the parcel, the staff had enjoyed the sweets. They were too shy to admit to the sweeper that they had eaten the delicacies and too horrified to tell their children and spouses that the sweets they had brought home were in fact left overs. Losses of parcel due to pilferage or negligence are however not funny. Some contain machinery needed to put life into the crippled industrial plants, leading to untold misery to the laid-off labor. Other losses involve emotional upsets caused by loss of items, extremely valued by the senders, and those who hoped to receive them.