Stealing coconuts

When we were young we lived in a Kampong that was owned by one family. They were a family of 2 brothers who had two children each. Both the parents were government employees and were from a traditionally wealthy family. The land they occupied was a sprawling two acre plot on which they had built 5 timber terraced houses for rent. The land also had an assortment of fruit trees including coconut trees, jack fruit, durian,mangosteen and mango trees. However the landlords were old and could not pluck the fruits. Most of the time the fruits would become overripe and fall to the ground. This provided the right opportunity for the young boys in the kampong to avail themselves of these fruits.

The eldest daughter married a policeman and this guy was enthusiastic about nabbing the young boys who were stealing the fruits. He was particularly interested to nab one of my family members to teach us a lesson. Since he was a government employee, we knew his hours of work and rarely indulged in stealing fruits when he was around. One day he heard the rustling sound of the coconut fronds. Suspecting it to be one of my family members, he summoned some police officers who were his colleagues and informed them that thieves were in his compound, stealing fruits. The police officers responded to his call as they were colleagues but to his dismay, the culprit was from the nearby village and not a member of my family. He apologised to the policemen and told them he did not wish to proceed with his report as he knew the family of the culprit.

When the policemen left, my brothers and I raided the plantation to pluck the fruits that were begging for us to pluck them. After our raid we heard a cry for help. It was my youngest brother. He was half way up a coconut tree and did not know how to come down. One of my brothers had to climb up the tree to rescue him - luckily, much before the arrival of the landlord.

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