Scared by a ghost, he walked two kms and hired two three-wheelers home

An incident was reported from a village close to Badulla where a man got so scared of a ghost he thought he had witnessed. He took the long way round when attempting to get home, much to the astonishment of all those around him.

The man was considered a hard worker and a good, honest family man by everyone who knew him. So much so that he never spent his salary unwisely and used to come home with his monthly salary intact and hand it over to his wife. He was said to believe in the existence of ghosts. Upon receiving his salary he had left home and when he reached the Badulla town he had done some shopping for the home. He had taken the decision to walk the rest of the way home as the bus only travelled upto a certain spot and three-wheelers were very expensive at that time of the night. On his way back home he had thought of using a short-cut. It was around 11.30 p.m. When he was travelling along this short-cut he had heard a shuffling noise in the shrub-jungle he was passing at the time. He remembered that a man had died in the area several days ago. As soon as he heard the sound of leaves rustling in the thicket, he was scared and his lips had become dry due to fear. He had seen a wreath moving from side to side and he had begun to run without looking back until he saw a three-wheeler and got in. He had to spend Rs. 300 to reach his home. He had then proceeded to spend another 300/= to go around and spread the news of his new discovery.

The wife of the man who died had peeped through the fence and discovered a bull that had got its head stuck in a wreath. She had started to have some fun at the expense of this superstitious man and went around telling the story of how he had thought it was her husband’s ghost that was going around town with a wreath in his hand.

Two or three hours after this incident occurred, a person had come laughing, with a wreath that had gotten entangled onto the neck of a bull. The owner of the herd of cattle had explained to the people how his bull ‘Handaya’ had tried to get its head out of the wreath that had been entangled around its neck until dawn.