A biscuit the cop offered...

'Your insurance has expired. 500 bucks as fine', the cop told me. I looked at my watch. It was three in the morning. I looked around, there is an ATM right across the road. I looked back at the cop. I don't see him carrying his receipt book. I tried to recollect how much I had in my wallet. A ten and a hundred rupees (The Germans say numbers like that..weird). Damn. I gave that I-dont-have-money look to the cop.

A prologue:
It was almost three AM in the morning. I said to one of my best friends..."My place is close by. I would just ride on...". "why do u want to go back now. Its too late.", he said. I was two pegs down. But, that was almost 4 hours back. I was far from being tipsy. I had good time with him talking about all the things that I wanted to. Got on my bike. My place is just a kilometer away. I can be at home in less than five minutes, I thought. I was half way and I see that the road is barricaded in such a way that I have to slow down and pass thru it. I did not notice the cops. They were lurking in a dark corner. The moment I was trying to pass thru' the barricade, they almost pounced on me. I stopped my bike by the side of the road. 'Can I have a look at your bike papers?', he said it in kannada, the local language. I always thought that I could follow the local language. But this time I completely missed it. He understood I was not from the state. He repeated the same to me in my language after he confirmed that I was a telugu. The other cop came up to me and took the papers from me and handed it over to him and promptly ran behind his new prey, a lorry.

The Epilogue:
My quandary, now , is .. should I pay him the fine or should I just grease his palms? Any other time, I would have paid the fine. But he does not look like he is interested in me paying the fine. If I pull out five hundred rupees, they would straight go to his pocket. My does-not-have-money look did not work out. I pulled out my wallet from my jeans pocket. I told him that I have a hundred and ten rupees. He asked me to keep the tenner with me. Disappointed, I did away with my hundred rupee note. I gathered all the papers and getting ready to leave. I turned back to have a look at the cop. He pulled out a biscuit packet. He smiled at me and offered me one. Sheepishly, I took one and rode along........