THE DISHONEST CHILD

AUTHOR’S PROFILE

NAME: NANA KWAME APPRAKU
AGE: 10
GRADE: 6
SCHOOL: YERIEL BRACHA SCHOOL

STORY TITLE: THE DISHONEST CHILD

Once upon a time, there lived a girl called Olivia. She lived with her
Mother and two siblings, Max and Sandra. Olivia’s mother was her only
parent because her father passed on some few weeks after she was born.
Her mother tries to provide everything Olivia and her siblings need
although her only source of income is the sales she makes from selling
charcoal. Her work is very difficult because she has no money to buy
firewood, so she walks a long distance to the bush and cuts the wood
herself before burning them to get the charcoal. But because she was
very hardworking, she made enough money to cater for Olivia and her
siblings.

One day, just after Olivia and her younger siblings had left for school,
mother checked her purse to be sure of the money in it before going to
the market. To her surprise, GHC 20 was missing from her wallet. She
was very shocked. ‘Just last night, I checked and there was 100 Cedis
here. How is it 80 now?’, she asked herself.

When Olivia and her siblings returned home from school, mummy asked
for who took the money from her purse. Immediately, Max told mummy,
‘ Today, Olivia had a lot of money and spent it with her friend.’ Olivia
angrily shouted at Max and denied taking any money from the purse.
Mummy checked Olivia’s school bag to find if she would see any money.
She finds no money in the bag. Olivia was relieved. Then Max said,
‘ Mummy check her socks, she keeps her money in her socks.’ She asked
Olivia , ‘Is that true?’ Olivia, obviously afraid, said ‘Yes, but there’s no
money in it.’ Mummy signaled to Max to bring Olivia’s shoes. Olivia
started sweating and crying. Mummy searched her shoes and found
some 5 Cedis. Right away Mummy angrily slapped Olivia and whipped
her with Max’s belt because she gave Olivia only 4 Cedis to school.
Mummy asked Olivia what she used the money for but Olivia still wasn’t
telling the truth. Mummy became angrier and continued whipping her.
Just when mummy was about to give her one more slap, Olivia quickly
pushed mummy and ran away from the house. That night, she slept
outside on the corridor in front of the house. Mummy cried so much as

Olivia had stolen from her and lied to her. Olivia, on the other hand, was
rather angry at mom because she didn’t spend the money herself but
gave some to a poor friend of hers who told her that her mother didn’t
give her money to school.

The next morning, before mummy, Max and Sandra could wake up, Olivia
was already up, sitting on the cold tiled floor. As she stared quietly in the
empty air, she saw a woman who was about to beat her child on the
other side of the road. But when the child told the woman the truth, the
woman, who seemed like his mother, forgave and left him. Olivia was
surprised at this and decided to also apologize to mummy and tell her
the truth hoping to be forgiven.

Just when mummy woke up, she worriedly ran to the corridor to check if
Olivia was still there. There she found Olivia, her knees bent to the floor
and one hand in the other. Olivia apologized to mummy and told her the
truth.

Mummy started to cry and hugged Olivia. She told her, ‘ I love you
Olivia and I’m doing everything I can to make a responsible woman out
of you. Please don’t steal from me and lie to me again. Okay?’ Olivia also
cried and said ‘ okay , mum. I won’t lie to you again.’

Mummy led Olivia into the house, prepared breakfast and got her
children ready for school. She hugged them one last time and gave them

her usual goodbye pecks. They also responded, ‘ we love you mum.’
Olivia happily walked on the narrow sandy road to school with her
siblings having learnt her lesson to never ever lie or steal from her mum.