"But I did not do it!!" - A true story

"Uncle, this guy has thrown garbage in the compartment!!". It was a 10-12 year old school student talking to me. I was sitting almost alone in a first class compartment, and these bunch of 6-7 school children had hopped in. I looked where he was pointing at and saw a few sheets of crumpled newspapers thrown on the floor of the train compartment.

I smiled at the 'culprit' and said "OK...just clean it up". "But I did not do it!!!"  he appealed. This issue was going to be longer than I thought. I said to the complainant "Arre, but we WILL have to clean it up right?" To which his innocent response was "But he was the one who did it!!"

"See, who threw it does not make a difference..." I mechanically started, and then stopped myself. My philosophy class was not going to work here. The already glazed look in the eyes was further evidence of this fact.

I stood up and walked upto the battleground of "I did not do it" and "But why should I do it?" and said "Accha, just wait a minute!!!" That bought me a few seconds of attention. "Look at that garbage" They all looked at it - together. "Does it look nice?" The look in their eyes had changed from a look of defiance to a look of care. "Chalo, lets clean it then?". I took a step forward, but coincidentally the 'culprit' beat me to it. I am not sure if it was just weak memory, but they seem to have forgotten about the 'Who did it?' debate. Though they were teasing the 'culprit' even now. And he was sheepishly smiling back. But it looked like the question did not matter that much any more....

P.S. 'Uncle' is a common way of addressing in India. All elders are 'Uncles' or 'Auntys'. It has no bearing on age/seniority whatsoever.