In a small town of Newberry, there lived a 13-year old girl named Isabella. She belonged to a family where both of the parents worked tirelessly to put food on the table for their three children. They had to cut corners to have a roof over the head, but they were content with their lives.

Isabella was the eldest child of her parents. She appeared to be a helpful and obedient daughter to her parents, but deep down she hated being a part of her family. She used to think about how better her life would have been if her parents were rich. Isabella used to dream about a lavish house and fancy cars. She could not resist thinking about delicious food and beautiful dresses. She knew that her parents could not afford such luxuries.

One fine day, she was alone at her house. She was roaming around when suddenly something caught her eyes. It was a shiny necklace made of gold, lying on the dining table. At first, she decided not to touch it, because it possibly belonged to her mother. But the little girl could not help herself. So, she hesitantly picked it up and noticed right away that it was quite heavy, she could easily tell that it was made out of pure gold.

Isabella decided to put the necklace back on the table, but she questioned herself, how can her parents buy such a precious necklace? Negative thoughts started to cross her mind.

Isabella’s naive mind thought that her parents were secretly rich and had been hiding it from her. Hence, she made the decision to keep the necklace in order to teach her parents a lesson. Besides, she was thrilled about all the things that she could buy after selling the necklace.

So without giving it a second thought, Isabella stole the necklace and kept it in one of her books. She was a bit worried that her parents might find out, but greed made her blind to the facts.

When Isabella’s parents came back home, they found her sleeping in her room. Her mother seemed a little worried, and upon entering the house she started to look for something. She emptied the cupboard out and threw all the things that were on the table. Isabella’s father joined her and started to look for the missing necklace. Soon, the environment of the house became chaotic.

Isabella woke up on hearing her mother’s voice, she was crying and Isabella’s father was shouting at her. Isabella’s eyes were now wide open, because she had never heard her father shouting and her mother crying like this before. She was still lying on the bed, as she did not have the courage to go outside. Isabella knew that this was all because of the necklace.

She heard her mother saying, “It is all my mistake, I should have not been careless with the necklace which belonged to someone else. Now, we will have to pay for it. Oh! Where will we get this much money from? The neighbours will surely hand us over to the police.”

At that moment, Isabella realised that she had made a big mistake and misjudged her parents. But she knew that it was not very late to confess. She composed herself and went up to her sobbing mother.

Her mother looked at her blankly and asked, “Isabella, have you seen a gold necklace on this table?”

Isabella knew that this was the right moment to confess her wrongdoing. So, in a shaky voice, she replied, “Mother, I know where it is because I am the one who took it.”

After saying this she broke down in tears. Both of her parents glanced at each other, they could not believe that their daughter could be rebellious. Miraculously, instead of shouting at Isabella, they hugged her.

She was shocked, she looked up and started to apologise for her mistake. Her father interrupted her and said, “My child, I am extremely disappointed in you because I did not teach you to steal, but I taught you to be honest and I am satisfied that at least you accepted your mistake. But, can you imagine what would have happened if you had not admitted today? I and your mother could have ended up in jail.”

The thought of her parents being locked inside the jail gave Isabella chills and from that day onwards, she decided not to take or touch anyone’s belonging without their permission.

Children, Isabella learned her lesson the hard way but we must learn a lesson from her and always keep in mind the severe consequences that our actions might cause.

Published in Dawn, Young World, September 26th, 2020