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Introduction

Welcome to my blog. It's another week of the story "The Wounded Captain," and in this episode, I will be writing about
A Reward For Honesty
At the end of the story, please visit other episodes for a better understanding of the story.

A Reward For Honesty

Ndopnda was a very vigilant boy. The information about his observation led to the discovery of the thieves and part of the stolen items. His master was happy, too. The storekeeper and the security guard were released and had resumed duties at their various posts.

Akpatta saw the need for additional security guard and Storekeeper Assistant. He decided to elevate and redeploy Ndopnda into the store. One more security guard was employed and designated Store Assistant.

Before the redeployment of Ndopnda, Akpatta revisited the poor educational attainment of Ndopnda. 'He can be a watched dog to the storekeeper,' he told himself.

Ndopnda thought of his new responsibility, too. He knew he was not educated. His mother had died when he was less than four years old, and his father hadn't wasted time obliterating the memory of his late wife. Immediately, he had brought into the house a new wife. His father's new wife didn't like Ndopnda. Apart from the fact that Ndopnda had urinated and excreted in the house, he had taken delight in crying. Even at the age of six, there had been a day he cried and had been rewarded by his father's guest, who gave him one Naira for his zeal. His father was a town crier, and so people had known Ndopnda and his ability to cry. They were fond of asking his father to send him out for vigil to assist members of deceased families in mourning.
Because his father's wife had hated Ndopnda, she had urged his father to send him out as a servant to one of her relatives. Ndopnda's father had held no objection to this proposal, and he was pushed out at a very tender age to serve as a houseboy.

It was one of his masters that had sent him to school. And that had been when he was ten years old. He didn't complete primary two when his boss had an accident and died. After the death of this boss, Ndopnda had been sent to stay with other masters who had considered his schooling a taboo.

After a day, Ndopnda didn't consider his deficiency of being unable to read and write properly as a yardstick for his inability to carry out his duty successfully. He recalled the story he had told Abia that the first engineer, lawyer, and doctor had not been taught by anybody. He always comforted himself with that. After all, his teacher had told him this many years ago, and his friend at Ebitu had also confirmed the same.

In the warehouse, the storekeeper did almost everything about recording and filing. Ndopnda was able to write his name in the attendance register. He wrote slowly, with most spelling incorrect.

He was good at memorizing all the stock in the warehouse. The ability to remember the quantity of goods that came in and went out of the warehouse gave him an advantage. But his thought on how to solve his writing ability called for concern.

The new gardener could read and write properly. He was the one who had written a letter which Ndopnda posted to his father. In the letter he had enclosed some money for his father and both the letter and the money were lost in transit. Since then, he often sent money to his father by postal order.
Ndopnda took his problem to the gardener formerly.

'You know, I've a problem. I want to bring it to you formerly. This problem of reading and writing has given me many worries. Can you help me to solve them?' asked Ndopnda.

'The only way you can solve this problem is for you to enrol and attend Adult Education Classes immediately. You may be ashamed of it, you know, but I bet you will never regret it. Many important men and women went through this education, and they have been able to read and write.'

Conclusion

Thank you for reading to the end. I believe you enjoyed the story. To understand this story better, please read other episodes below.

• Episode 1, Taboo on Playmates
• Episode 2, Hocky the dog
• Episode 3, The Gardener
  Episode 4, The-master
• Episode 5, The gate man encounter with Itina
• Episode 6, Thieves in the warehouse
• Episode 7, The Cook and The Steward Imprisoned