Khansa was fond of writing stories. Ideas flowed into her mind like sunlight spreading across the sky, and she would put them down on the page immediately.

As everyone has some shortcomings, Khansa was no exception. Despite being a studious child, it was her tendency to be messy. Her room was always cluttered with paper, pencils, pens and wrappers, along with crumbs from snacks she would indulge in while brainstorming.

Snacking was a habit she found hard to control, and the fact that she didn’t clean up the mess afterwards meant that things around her room, and the house in general, would get untidy. Dirty plates, glasses and wrappers would lay until the next day when the maid would come to tidy up. However, soon after the room was cleaned, Khansa would mess it up again.

Days passed normally until suddenly, a strange phenomenon occurred. One night, Khansa placed her writing journal in the drawer and the next day when she opened the drawer to take it out, she found many of its page torn in small pieces. Khansa was shocked. The same bizarre incident repeated over the next few days, with not only the pages of her journal spread across her room in pieces, but those of magazines and textbooks were also found scattered in pieces across her room. Overwhelmed, Khansa couldn’t contain her emotions and burst into tears. Hearing her sobbing, her mother rushed in from the kitchen.

“What happened, Khansa, why are you crying?” mum asked.

But Khansa continued to cry. Then her mother noticed the shredded pages of magazines, her journal and her textbooks. Her mother immediately realised what could have caused such a mess.

“Khansa, when was the last time you cleaned out your drawers?” her mother asked.

Khansa had no answer except to bow her head in embarrassment. Suddenly, the story she had read a few days ago about “cleanliness is half faith,” along with her mother’s instructions about cleaning, started echoing in her mind.

Her mother looked around the room and declared, “My dear girl, I’m afraid your precious pages and magazines have become the feast of a critter — a rat!”

“What? No, mum, it can’t be! I ... I haven’t seen any in the room ... but yes ... I heard squeaks at night!” she thought and said.

“Yes, dear, the way they are torn into bits and pieces is the work of a rat. Since you hardly clean room and the food scraps are found everywhere in the room. They offer a feast too hard to resist for hungry little creatures,” her mother concluded.

Khansa was worried and shocked that her habit of not cleaning up the mess had made a rat her “roommate”.

“Mum, please help me, I promise from now on, I’ll clean up as soon as I make any mess.”

Her mum assured her that things would return to normal once she started cleaning her room. Then they both got up to clean. Khansa felt ashamed to discover several wrappers, some with partially eaten biscuits, chocolates and chips, under and behind her cupboard and bed, in the drawers and, in fact, everywhere! She also found many small cockroaches attempting to hide as they cleaned.

Khansa cursed her laziness. That night, her dad bought a rat trap cage and baited it with food. Khansa desperately wanted peace by catching the enemy. She didn’t sleep in her room that night, instead, she slept with her parents.

The next morning, her dad woke her up and said, “Khansa, the criminal is behind bars!”

Khansa rushed to her room to see the culprit. “Hurray!” she shouted in happiness as she looked at a cute little mouse sitting innocently in a corner.

Then her dad carefully removed the cage. Now Khansa promised her mother to clean the room daily, understanding the importance of taking care of her belongings. Most of all this incident taught her that there is a right time, right place and right way of eating things, if food scrapes and dirty things are left around, they attract pests and insects, leading to diseases and infections in worst cases.

So friends, if your room, bed and drawers become dirty, don’t waste time, clean them immediately and dispose the trash outside properly, even if it is an empty chips or biscuit wrapper.

Published in Dawn, Young World, March 30th, 2024