Taking help from the information given below and inventing your own ideas, write a short story on ‘God Sees the Truth, but Waits’.

Outline:  In Vladimir lived a young merchant Aksyonof ……………… going to Nizhny Fair ………..met a merchant at the inn ……… stayed in the adjoining rooms ………… next morning he was arrested ………. blood-stained dagger found ………..remained in prison for 26 years in Siberia ………..one day a new prisoner Makar came …………… from his talks and movements Aksyonof was sure that Makar killed the merchant ……….. Makar dug a tunnel …………..asked Aksyonof to go out …………. the tunnel discovered …………… Aksyonof didn’t tell anything about Makar’s conspiracy ……………. Makar came to Aksyonof at ‘night’…………… wept…………… confessed his guilt to the police …………. Aksyonof died before he could be released

Ans.                                                            God Sees the Truth, but Waits

There lived in Vladimir, a young merchant Aksyonof. One summer he was going to the Nizhny Fair. When he had travelled half-way, he met a merchant whom he knew quite well. They stayed at the same inn and went to bed in an adjoining room. The next morning, Aksyonof continued his journey. Two soldiers and an officer stopped him on the way. Aksyonof was searched and a blood-stained knife was recovered from his bag. He was arrested for killing and looting his fellow merchant in the inn. Aksyonof pleaded innocence. He was charged with the murder and robbing the merchant of 20,000 roubles. For twenty six-years Aksyonof lived as a convict in Siberia. His hair turned white and his beard grew long, thin and grey. No news reached from his home and Aksyonof didn’t know if his wife and children were alive or not. One of the new convicts was from Aksyonof’s town, Vladimir. He was Makar. He told that Aksyonofs were rich but their mother was dead and father was in Siberia. Aksyonof asked Makar if he had heard who killed the merchant. He replied that the man in whose bag the knife was found must be the murderer. He asked, “How could anyone put a knife into your bag while it was under your head”? Aksyonof felt sure that Makar was the man who had killed the merchant. One night Makar came to Aksyonof’s room and told him that he had dug a tunnel under the wall and Aksyonof could go out of the prison. The next day, the soldiers found the tunnel. They asked Aksyonof who dug the tunnel. “It is not God’s will that I should tell!” told Aksyonof.

That night Makar came to Aksyonof and confessed that it was he who had killed the merchant and hid the knife in his bag. He wept bitterly and asked for forgiveness. He would confess and Aksyonof could be released. “Where could I go now? ……….My wife is dead, and my children have forgotten me. I have nowhere to go.” Makar confessed his guilt. But when the order for Aksyonof’s release came, he was already dead.

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