A long time ago, we operated a corporate 4-day “outward bound” camp near a sheep farm at Mannavanur in Kodaikanal, Tamilnadu. The land was beautiful with rolling grasslands, patches of Eucalyptus and a few village huts, out of sight, a little distance away.

One morning, one of our clients, couldn’t find his nice new foreign-bought Nikes, which he had left to dry outside his tent. Everyone searched but to no avail. The only possible culprits were a bunch of adorable little boys from the nearby village. They vehemently denied even seeing any shoes, let alone stealing them. When the group set out for a trek, I stayed back in camp that day and got chatting with the boys. They were intrigued by a green vine snake that I had in an earthen pot with me.

Vine snakes are called “Kankothi pambu” in Tamil, translated as eye-pecking snake and are a bit feared for that reason. Playing around, I told them that this snake had magical powers; that they were most always gentle and wouldn’t harm anybody who has a clean heart. While one of them, braver than the rest handled the snake, I moved my story along saying that if anyone had done anything dishonest in the recent past the snake might strike. This one little guy absolutely refused to handle the snake, come near and even broke into tears. And as it transpired, we went over to his house in the village and recovered the missing shoes out of a trunk under his fathers bed.