A Message From A Dying Man - written by Alfred (a short story for kids)

Once upon a time a little boy named Cody received an e-mail from nowhere. He didn’t know how the person got his e-mail address but there was the message staring right back at him in his inbox.   The e-mail was from a dying man.

The dying man had written that the doctor has given him only a few days to live. He said that he was old and didn’t mind dying but the problem was that he was a billionaire and he had no heir. He said that he was looking for somebody to give the 25 billion dollars he had in his bank account to.

At this point, Cody’s heart started jumping for joy as he forced himself the best he could to sit still and read on.

The e-mail went on to read that the dying man needed to test the investment savvy of the person he would need to choose as his heir. So he said that at a test he would like the person to choose and do one of the following two options:

The First Option was that the person should invest all he had in one of the companies that the dying man had that was sure to make a 100% return on investment.

The Second Option was that the person should invest all he had in another company that the dying man had but was sure to make only a 50% return on investment.

Cody was like that was simple. Tricky but simple. The answer was the First Option.

Cody looked at the credit and debit card details at the bottom of the e-mail and he was extremely happy. He was going to be a billionaire and he was only 11 years old.

Cody told his elder brother the good news but his elder brother tells him that it was a fraud and that he should forget about it.

Cody pretended to agree but in his heart he believed that his elder brother was only jealous of him and wished that it was him that got the e-mail.

Cody decided to steal his elder brother’s debit card. He could hear God’s voice telling him not to. He could hear every sermon that he heard in Sunday School that stealing is wrong echoing in his ears. He could even hear his own heart-beat beat louder. But Cody shoved all the warning bells to the said and said to himself that he knew what he was doing. He couldn’t let this opportunity of a life time pass him by, besides he would pay his brother back more than double the money. He would even buy him a house when he becomes a billionaire.

Cody sent the dying man all the money on his brother’s debit card which he stole.

Cody was happy. Any time now he would be counting his billions.  

Cody started making a list for all the things he would spend his money on and all the people he would show off to.

Cody felt like the most blessed boy on the face of the earth and he thanked the same God that told him not to steal his elder brother’s debit card.

Many hours passed and Cody decided to send another e-mail to the dying man to find out why he hasn’t replied yet.

He got a reply from the dying man’s e-mail address that read:

“THE OWNER OF THIS E-MAIL ADDRESS JUST DIED A FEW SECONDS AGO AND IF HE OWES YOU ANY MONEY, SORRY! BECAUSE YOU CAN’T GET MONEY FROM SOMEONE WHO IS ALREADY DEAD. GOODBYE.”

Cody couldn’t believe what he just read. He started crying and felt like his head was spinning in a dream world. It could have been better if it was all a dream. He wished it was all a dream.Cody begged the God he didn’t listen to earlier for help.

With tears in his eyes he sent another e-mail to the e-mail address of the dying man saying that he doesn’t want the billions again. That can he please be sent back the exact amount of money that he gave. That he is not interested in becoming a billionaire again.

The e-mail got sent back to him with a delivery failure notice that the e-mail address he sent the e-mail to no longer exists.   

Cody cried and felt like dying. What is he going to tell his elder brother? What would his elder brother do to him? He had wiped out all his elder brother’s pocket money that Mum and Dad gave him for feeding and buying books during his next semester in college.

Cody googled to see if he could track down the dying man but all he found where true stories of people who had been con-ed with the same dying man trick. Clearly, it had all been pulled off by the same person or the same group of people.

What disturbed Cody the most was that no one had ever tracked down the dying man or gotten their money back when they told their card company or the police. The dying man was one of the best at what he did and he was listed in the police directory in various police agencies around the world as “Unknown” and “Most Wanted.”

There was no chance that Cody would ever get his elder brother’s money back.The price he paid for stealing was having what he stole, getting stolen from him. Which in turn has created another price he would have to pay when his elder brother finds out what he has done.

THE END.