Hassan had always been lazy. He worked on a rubber plantation along with his father and it was his job to empty the tins of latex hanging around the trees that his father had tapped, and to fill the buckets with the strong sticky liquid. He then had to carry the buckets, which were very heavy when full, to the shed at the edge of the plantation.

His father usually supervised the part at the shed to make sure that they were paid the right amount of money. It was also Hassan’s job, therefore, to take care of the tins as they hung around the rubber trees. He had to see that they were firm and securely tied with wire to the trees. He had to make sure, too, that there were no holes in them.

It was a misty morning, the rubber plantation was quiet, dark and still. Hassan went around the trees, one by one, inspecting the tins and emptying them. Some of them were full to the top, but quite a lot of them were only half-full or even less than that. However, he went around ifferently pouring the latex into the bucket, without even bothering to think why so many of the tins were nearly empty.

“I’ll take what I’ve got and not worry about anything else,” he thought and joined his father at the shed. Of course, they were not paid so much money that morning because the latex simply wasn’t there.

“What’s happened today, son?” asked his father. “Have you missed out on half the trees or what?”

“I don’t know,” shrugged Hassan, who wanted to hurry home with his share of the payment to check if he had got enough money to buy a beaded bracelet he had seen in the market.

“Perhaps some of the tins have got holes in them,” suggested his father. “Our rubber trees are young and should be yielding far more than this. Check all the tins tomorrow!”

“Check all the tins, hah…!” muttered Hassan, but not aloud, of course.

And so the day passed and his father came home disappointed because he had hoped to have more money.

“Don’t forget those tins tomorrow,” he said to him. “If they’ve got holes in them, you must mend them with some tin solder in good time. If you don’t, we’ll have to replace all the tins with new ones, not to mention losing a lot of good latex and the money that comes with it.

“Remember that ‘a stitch in time saves nine’ — it’s a proverb meaning that a little trouble and effort today can prevent much larger problems and work tomorrow,” said his father with concern.

“Always preaching,” mumbled Hassan, as he went to bed.

The next morning, however, he did check the tins and, sure enough, as he poured out the latex and inspected the bottoms of the tins, he found tiny holes in almost half of them. The latex that had collected was, of course, much less because so much of it had dropped through these holes and had begun to congeal on the soft grass at the base of each tree.

“I’ll find some better tins later on today, and I’ll buy a stick of solder in the village and come back to mend the rest tonight,” thought Hassan. However, he did nothing of the sort.

The next morning, the pools of latex below the rubber tree were bigger than ever, because somehow during the night, the holes in the tins seemed to have gotten bigger than ever. The quantity of latex was so small that his father came to inspect the tins himself.

“You’ll mend or replaced them now, this very morning,” he yelled in rage, as he looked at Hassan. “Do it at once!”

But Hassan never did and so, not many days later, there were no latex at all and the tins were beyond repair.

“They’ve all got to be replaced now,” said his father, “and time and money will be lost while we get new buckets. As it is, we were not selling enough latex for so many days due to the damaged bucket. If only you’d listened to me and mended them while the holes were small, all this trouble and expense would have been avoided. Now do you see that a stitch in time saves nine?”

This lesson left a lasting impact on Hassan, making him realise the value of timely action. From that day onwards, he understood that small efforts could prevent much bigger problems down the road.

Published in Dawn, Young World, September 7th, 2024