Once upon a time, there lived a boy named Hitire with his mother in a small village. Hitire did not like going to school, so he spent most of his time at home. To entice him to go to school, one day his mother said, “If you go to school, I will make puris for you.”

So, with the promise of hot puris once he returned, Hitire went off to school. And he learnt many things in school,

On his way back, he thought that perhaps his mother will cook more puris but will only give him one or two. So once he reached home he hid behind the kitchen wall and peeped from a small hole.

For every puri that his mother fried, Hitire broke a piece from a stick. At the end he had broken off 50 pieces.

He then pretended he had just come home from school. His mother put two puris for him on a plate and gave it to him. Hitire got angry and said, “You cooked 50 puris and you’re only giving me two.”

Then his mother asked, “How do you know?”

He replied, “I know because I went to school and learned to count.” — Ramchandra Joshi, Class VI, Avant-garde Boarding School, Kalimati, Kathmandu