Zebra Zebra

This is the story of a remote village in the African Savannah. The
nearest town is 20 miles from here. The nearest police station is just
as far. There was a time when the village had many young men. Now only
five or six are left. The people believe that the men still live within
village limits but as zebras. The story that everyone believes is this.
There are no doctors in the village. Whenever anybody falls sick he has
to visit the medicine man. No one quite knows whether the medicine man
has ever studied medicine. He, however, has many medicines which
generally provide relief to the sick and ailing. But, the medicine will
be yours only if you can pay the medicine man. If you cannot you are
asked to visit the man again. Or the medicine man will find you. He
always finds you no matter where you hide. And then, the medicine man
will turn you into a zebra. You become part of his huge zebra farm. The
villagers are helpless. There is a hospital in the nearest town but
that's too far. If you can pay the medicine man, his medicines always
heal you very fast. There was a time when the villagers did not believe
that they could be turned to zebras. Some of the bold, reckless man
faked illnesses and then did not pay for the medicines given to them.
For their pains they were turned into zebras. Zebras with beautiful
black and white stripes. Most of the village families are quite poor
and can scarcely afford two square meals a day. So, when they
approached the medicine man on being ill they promised to pay him on a
later date. When they actually had that amount of money they drank and
made merry with it. It did not occur to them that the medicine man
would find them. And turn them into zebras. A strange thing happened
today. A man,called Jote who was supposed to have been turned into a
zebra long ago appeared in the village today. He had a closed-door
meeting with the village headman. The village headman called his
cronies and they in turn called their friends. After a while about
twenty men were ready with sticks, lances, knives and whatever else
they could find. They all ran hard towards the medicine man's house. It
must be mentioned here that though everyone else in the village lived
in mud-and-straw dwellings the medicine man his family occupied a
palatial three-storey concrete building. Not to mention his vast zebra
farm. It was noon time and the medicine man was enjoying his siesta.
However, the new arrival Jote shook him hard and woke him up. He was
asked many questions. Knowing that his time was truly up the medicine
man admitted to everything. The story was interesting to say the least.
Outside the boundary wall of his zebra farm is a medicine factory which
is run by the medicine man's brother who is a qualified person. He made
all the medicines his brother needed. It was with his help that his
brother memorised which medicine was required for which ailment. The
wall between the zebra farm and factory is covered by an electrified
fence and heavily guarded. The factory was perennially short of
employees. What the medicine man would do was this. Whenever a man or
woman failed to pay for the medicines he would make them take some
sleeping medicine. He or she would be taken, always at night, to the
factory in a special covered car. Of course the route taken would be a
substantial detour but in the larger interest of everything this did
not matter. After the man was settled in the factory a new zebra would
be caught from the Savannah and added to the farm. The villagers would
be told that the defaulter had been turned into a zebra. All this was
quite convenient but the man Jote was an expert at jumping with poles.
He had been practising his jumping for about a month. He had found a
large enough pole too. The day before, when all were asleep he had used
the pole to jump over the electrified fence into the zebra farm.
Thereafter he ran under the cover of darkness to his house. His elderly
parents who believed he was a zebra were greatly pleased. After the
medicine man admitted to his wrongdoings he was handed over to the
police along with his brother. The men and women they held captive were
freed. The brothers never bothered the villagers again.