After returning to Rahul’s home the genie sat there all puzzled and bewildered. He had not expected anything like that.

Rahul said, “He was a really good person that is why he said that. You however have torn off all the buttons from the shirt! Can’t you get them back on instantly?”

The genie looked glumly at the shirt and said, “No, I can’t do anything for myself. That is against the rule. If you have a needle and thread and some buttons in the house I can get to work the regular way, no magic. Alright, good night! I will see you tomorrow.”

“Don’t you want dinner?”

The genie looked ashamed, “I ate whatever Bhairav had in his kitchen so I am not really hungry. The truth is I haven’t done that kind of exercise in a long time and it had made me very hungry. Plus I thought Bhairav had been really wicked so punishing him a little more wouldn’t actually be wrong, so…” and with that the genie went back to the attic.

Rahul was fast asleep on the sofa and the TV was on full blast when his parents returned home with Ria.

The next day as soon as his parents left with Ria the genie came down from the attic. Rahul saw that he had managed to sew on buttons to the shirt. They were all sown with different coloured threads but at least they were sewed on!

“Where are we going today?”

“Today we are going to a social worker’s house. People say he does good for everyone.

“Oh, that sounds promising! Let’s go!”

In the wink of an eye they were standing right before the social worker’s house.

‘His name is Manoj Kumar Dhar. He is not married and lives alone.”

A boy of Rahul’s age opened the door when they rang the bell.

“Yes?”

“Er, I mean, is Mr. Dhar in?”

“What do you want? We are not buying anything!”

“Actually it’s a bit of a secret. If you can please tell him that we have come from very far to meet him. He will not be disappointed if he sees us!”

“No, that is not going to do! You have to specify what exactly you want, otherwise he gets really angry. All sorts of weird people come and bother him all the time.”

“Alright, tell him that we have come to help him in his work. I can’t really say any more than that.”

The boy scanned their faces and went inside. A little while later Mr. Manoj Dhar came to the door.

“What exactly do you want? I don’t have the time you know and I can’t give you any jobs either!”

“The matter we want to discus is highly confidential. May we come in?”

“Ok, but five minutes are all I can give you. If you are from a newspaper let me tell you beforehand that I do not give any interviews.”

The genie sat on the sofa and said, “You help a lot of people so we thought we might do you a favour!”

“Do me a favour? What kind of favour are you talking about?”

“Let’s put it this way, say if I give you something that will fulfill all your wishes, something like Aladdin’s lamp.”

“Do you have nothing better to do than crack jokes early in the morning? Well, I have plenty to do. Now why don’t you stop bothering me and leave?”

“I am not joking. Here it is,” and the genie took the lamp out of the bag, “You can test it if you want!”

Mr. Dhar looked puzzled as he rubbed the lamp and said, “A glass of lemonade!”

Lo and behold a tall frosty glass of lemonade appeared right on the table before him. Mr. Dhar was looking extremely undecided so the genie took the glass and drank up the lemonade in one go!

“This is unbelievable!” Mr. Dhar said and ran inside. He came back a little later with a plate of sweets.

“I am so thankful that you came to me! You have to eat some sweets!”

The genie overjoyed at the sight of the sweets started gobbling them right away and he didn’t stop at one or two! Rahul not being overly fond of sweets wasn’t eating any. Mr. Dhar forced him to take one but instead of eating it he put it in his pocket when Mr. Dhar wasn’t looking.

Within no time the genie had fallen asleep! Surely the sweets were doctored! Rahul decided that he should pretend to sleep as well and did.

As soon as Mr. Dhar saw them both sleeping he grabbed the lamp and ran off to another room.

‘In other words we have come to give the lamp and do a huge favor to a common thief!’ Rahul thought outraged!

He knew that the lamp would not work because the genie who did all the fulfilling of the wishes was fast asleep on the sofa! He got up and wandered around the house. He went to the kitchen and saw two boys of his age working there.

As soon as they saw Rahul they said, “Are you here to work? Run for your life! Don’t ever stay here! We are only here because we have no choice. He is a terribly bad tempered person. He whips us for minor mistakes. It is a lot of work and the pay is really low.”

Rahul got a glass of water from the boys and then went back to the living room to wake up the genie. He poked and pushed, “Wake up! This is not the time to sleep! We have to retrieve the lamp and run from here.”

The genie still continued to sleep so Rahul poured the glassful of water over his head. That worked. The genie woke up spluttering. He then stretched and yawned, “Huh? Where’s the lamp?”

“Where else? With Mr. Dhar of course! He fed you sweets with sleeping pills and ran away with the lamp. Meanwhile I was talking to the kids who work for him. They said he is a monster to work for and tortures them no end!”

Just then Mr. Dhar appeared. He was livid and screaming on the top of his voice!

“Nonsense, all lies! You guys were trying to fool me with a glass of lemonade! This is not Aladdin’s lamp! My hands are sore from rubbing but nothing is happening. Take this fake and leave right now!”

The genie calmly took the lamp and put it in his bag. He said, “It is genuine alright. You are the one who couldn’t use it properly! Oh and while I am at it please let those kids go otherwise we’ll go to all the major newspapers and tell them all the stuff about hitting them with the belt and then you know..child labour and all that ….it’s a punishable offense as far as I know!”

The genie didn’t wait any longer he grabbed Rahul and left.

“Whew that was close! What a terrible man! That was indeed a near miss. Ok, let me go and get some sleep. I am still woozy from the effect of those drugged sweets. We’ll look for number three when I wake up. Thank God Aladdin had the brains to tag you with me otherwise it would have been disastrous!”