compo no.7 =)

Mr Tan’s crime

Tan Sew Hong, you are hereby sentenced to five years in jail,” the judge said monotonously. As I heard this, I felt sorry for him. This was what happened…

“Jim, do you want to go to Anchorpoint with me first?” one of my colleagues, Sam, asked me. All of the workers in Ten Stars company were very happy, as we had just gotten a big deal with a famous company. Being the vice president of the company, that obviously meant that I got a raise, so I was in high spirits. “Sure Sam. Why not?” I said, ready to celebrate the night away. The words had barely come out of my mouth when I heard a scream.

Sam and I stared at each other in puzzlement. We were both thinking the same thing – what was going on? Then another scream rented the air. “FIRE! FIRE!” someone yelled. That got us to our senses. We ran out the door as fast as our legs could carry us. When we were halfway there, I smelled smoke. That drove me to run faster. I ran and ran until I reached the door. I immediately ran out.

By now, mushroom shaped clouds of pewter grey smoke were curling out of the windows and doors of the factory. All the workers in the factory were gathered outside by now. The scream of sirens could be heard. Cleary someone had called the fire squad. As the fire fighters extinguished the fire, I wondered who could have done such an evil thing. All the business and products destroyed! Especially when we had a deal with the important company! It must have been one of our rival companies. As I thought of which one of our rivals could have done such a thing, one of the fire fighters came over to us and said,” All of you will have to come to the police station to submit to a questioning about who burnt down this building,” and with that, got into the fire truck.

We were aghast. They actually thought that we would burn down our own workplace building, and especially when we had struck such an important deal with the other company! Then Sam spoke up. “I think that we should go for the inquiry, to prove our innocence.” There were a few murmurs once he had said that. Finally, all of us agreed. We ambled our way to the nearest police station, where we submitted to questioning.

Finally, when all of us were done, a more senior officer came to us and said, ”Since you were insured, you can collect the insurance money from the bank tomorrow,” and then went off. We too, went back home.

Weeks passed, and the police investigated continuously. Then, one sunny day, I received an important letter saying that I needed to come to the police station right away. Puzzled, I immediately left for the police station.

“Mr Thomas, we have found out who had set fir to the company building. It was Mr Tan,” the officer told me. I could not believe my ears. I just stared at the officer blankly. He continued,” Do you know about the tainted milk products scandal? It seems as if Mr Tan knew about this earlier, before it came to light, and so burnt down the building to get insurance. We have sent a police car to Mr Tan’s home, and we want you to come to court for the hearing next week,” he said I nodded, still to blank to do anything. Once the officer had finished telling me about how they found evidence that Mr Tan was the culprit, I shakily made my way back home.

Now I was sitting in the courtroom and listening to Mr Tan being prosecuted. This incident has taught me a very important lesson – just tell the truth