We had heard the story from Police Inspector Ramani Mohan Sanyal. Byomkesh and I had met Ramani babu when we went to a large city in western India on some secret government work. Due to red tape in government work, our work was getting delayed hence we were sitting doing nothing in the Dak bungalow. Ramani Babu used to come to our bungalow almost every evening, and we used to have a good chat. His face was very sweet and charming. But that is his disguise. In fact, he is a very clever and intelligent policeman. His age was less than ours, not more than forty years. But our conversations were very interesting and lively cause we belonged to the same field of catching criminals.

It occurred to us that his frequent visits to us could not be of unselfish kindness; I was waiting in the hope that his purpose of frequent visit would be revealed in due time. Then one day he told us a story. Not exactly a story but a series of events related to a murder.

After finishing his story, Ramani Babu said, " Byomkesh Babu, I know who the killer is, I know why he killed; But still, I can't hang the man on the gallows. I don’t have any evidence. The only way is confession if the accused admits the crime himself. You have a lot of tricks in your head, can't you come up with a plan to trap the guy?

Byomkesh smiled and said, "I'll think about it.

"The story attracted me; It seems that Byomkesh's mind will also be drawn towards it. After Ramani babu left that night, Byomkesh said, 'Can't you write a story from the series of events that Ramani babu told us?

I said, "I can. The series of events are interesting. Only I have to understand the psychology of the characters and twine them together."

Byomkesh said, "Then write. But there is one condition: Please don’t distort the facts to make the story interesting.”

I said, "you don’t have to remind me of that.”

It took me two days to write the story. After finishing the draft, I gave it to Byomkesh, who read it and said "It seems to be correct. Let's read it to Ramani babu and see what he says.

"When Ramani Babu came at night, I let him read the story. After reading the draft he looked at me with joy and said, “this is it! This is exactly how the events happened and you have done a great job in intertwining the events together in form of a story.

Below is the story.

Shiv Prasad Sarkar was a rich man in this city who was made it big from his liquor business. His was a workaholic and had accumulated a lot of money, besides a huge house, and expensive cars. People called him a miser, he called himself a wise spender. The line between these two attitudes is very thin and we will not try to define it.

But it is in nature of the universe to create an equilibrium. Shiva Prasad Sarkar's only motherless son

grew up, his character turned out to be the exact opposite of his father's: he was a spendthrift having no control on his finances, he has no affection for money. He had a deep affection for any legitimate and illegitimate goods that can be obtained using money. He started squandering all the money which his father had accumulated.

His father Shiva Prasad was not blindly in love with his son, but he cared for him a lot. Observing his son's erratic behavior, he married him to a beautiful girl. But that did not change his character. Sunil remained attached to his wife for some time, then got back to his old lifestyle.

The bride's name is Reba; She is beautiful but intelligent, she knew how to hold a family together. Above all, she is educated of modern thinking. She ignored her husband's tyranny and devoted herself to the service of her old father-in-law. Siva Prasad himself looked after the affairs of his business till old age; because the son was incompetent, and Shiva Prasad could not trust any of his employees with his business affairs. Reba used to drive her father-in-law to office, help him with daily business affairs and drive him back home. Thus, Reba took the place of Shiva Prasad's son.

Then, four years after the marriage of Sunil and Reba Shiva Prasad passed away. Upon his death it was  revealed that he had bequeathed all the property to his daughter-in-law.

After inheriting all the property, Reba first sold of seventy five percent of the liquor business. She sold of the big house and bought a nice little house in a secluded part of town; she replaced the big car with a small Fiat car. She told the husband, "You will get three hundred rupees per month as monthly allowances. If you borrow any amount from anyone, I will not be responsible for it. I have printed this notice in the newspaper. "Then they moved to the small house and started living there. They did not have any children.

This is the introduction of the story.

Sunil is about thirty years old, has a stalky fat body, a round and flat face resembling an owl. His face seems to portray that he is not intelligent. People who squander away their parents hard earned money, are rarely intelligent but their instincts make up for their lack of intelligence. This is a universal truth which requires no proof. Everyone used to believe that Sunil was a fool having no knowledge of world affairs.

But Sunil was not an idiot. He may not have seemed intelligent, but he was wise. After his father's death, when he saw that the property was gone, he didn't quarrel with his wife, he didn't fight for the money, he went into hibernation. As long as Shiva Prasad was alive, he used