Coins pour out of piggy bank, enough for chaiwallah to buy Rs 1-lakh scooter
Times of India | 10 November 2025
West Midnapore: A humble tea seller from rural Bengal left many amazed with his act of patience, perseverance and love.
Bachchu Choudhury, a resident of Maula village in West Midnapore's Chandrakona block I, turned heads when he walked into a two-wheeler showroom in Chandrakona town's Gosai Bazar on Saturday, carrying plastic containers filled with coins totaling Rs 69,000 and another Rs 31,000 in notes.
He amassed the fortune after four years of meticulous saving in little ‘Lakshmir Bhands' (piggy banks).
Bachchu, in his mid-40s, wasn't there to buy a two-wheeler for himself. Instead, he was fulfilling daughter Sushma's dream to buy a scooter. And he did buy one, with his money and Rs 10,000 that his daughter had saved.
"He first asked about the price and said he might buy a scooter on EMI if it was too expensive," recalled a sales executive. "He then casually asked if we accepted coins. We agreed, but we didn't realise what he meant until he brought in containers and poured the coins on the floor!"
The staff was stunned on seeing the sheer number of coins — of Re 1, Rs 2, Rs 5 and Rs 10 denominations — and currency notes, of Rs 10, 20, 50 and 100.
It took eight employees over two hours to count the entire amount. "We've never experienced anything like this in our careers," said one of the executives, laughing.
Bachchu, who runs a small tea stall at his village, said he always dreamt of buying a motorbike. "But my daughter wanted a scooter," he said.
"She saved Rs 10,000 herself, so I decided to gift her one. This was my dream, too, and now it's fulfilled," the father said about his daughter.
Sushma, 23, could hardly believe what her father did for her. "Four years ago, I told my father I wanted a scooter to go to college and tuition," she recalled. "He said at the time that we couldn't afford one. Then, suddenly on Saturday, he told me, ‘Let's go — I'm getting you a scooter.' When I asked where he got the money from, he picked up a big box full of coins."
Only then did she realise why her father had been saving all those coins for the past four years.
"It's such a wonderful feeling, I'll never forget it," she said.
The scooter cost Rs 110,000. The father paid Rs 1 lakh and the daughter pitched in with the rest. The two carried the containers stashed with coins in a toto from home to the showroom, around 15km away.
"No loan, no EMI. We paid in full and brought home the scooter the same day," a proud Sushma said.
As news spread, locals and social media users hailed the tea seller's story as a beautiful example of a father's patience, hard work and love for his daughter. Even small savings, when fuelled by big dreams, can turn the apparently impossible possible.