THE BOY WHO STOLE SHADOWS

In an old village there lived a boy. He was seen running around the village in old clothes. One day the boy started stealing shadows of the people in the village. Soon the people started to realize that their shadows were missing. They started becoming paranoid because of their missing shadows. The villagers decided to find the cause of it. They gathered together and went out on search for their shadows. They set out to the forest near their village, it was near the mountain. As they got a little deep into the forest, they heard the voice of a boy coming from near them. They walked towards the direction of the sound and found a cave. The villagers entered the cave and as they walked in a little bit they saw a boy who was sitting near the fire surrounded by a bunch of shadows. The villagers knew that it was their shadows. They were scared to see the boy playing with their shadows. The villagers ran towards the boy with sticks in their hands and beat him to death. As the boy became dead their shadows got returned to them. The villagers returned to their village with a smile as they proclaimed to have killed the monster who stole their shadows. But was the boy a monster like they said? What he needed was their shadows or company.

The boy lived alone as an orphan. He had no one by his side. All he wanted was the company of someone, but every time the villagers saw him, they kept him away from them. The boy started stealing shadows of people to keep him company and not to feel alone anymore. All he wanted was to feel his existence and care, but the people saw him as a monster rather than a lonely soul who was dying to get some love. There are lots of people like that boy who just wanted have someone by their side not feel alone, but constantly gets excluded. Some of them end up taking their life whereas some just continue to live their life in the pain of being alone. All they want is comfort to keep them going and feel like their existence matter. A little care and acknowledgement from others can change their life. Just like the boy who lived in the cave could have lead a normal life instead of getting killed as a monster.