It wasn't a golden egg, but an ordinary egg bought from the market for six rupees. But the spirit with which a poor widow donated it for the construction of a mosque raised its total value to over two and a half lakh rupees.
A mosque has been under construction for several months in the village of 'Mal Maapan Pura' in Sopore, a northern town in Indian-administered Kashmir. On the occasion of Eid, the mosque committee decided to go door-to-door to collect cash and in-kind donations.
People donated cash, utensils, chickens, rice, etc.
Nasir Ahmed, a member of the mosque committee, says, "We were collecting donations when a woman from a small house came to me quietly, head bowed, and handed me an egg, saying, 'Please accept this from me.' Nasir says that the woman is a very poor widow who lives in a small dilapidated house with her only son.
He says that the other things were given away to be sold, 'but I was worried what to do with this egg?'
Nasir further says, 'It was an ordinary egg worth six rupees, but the spirit with which the poor woman gave it in the way of God made it very precious to her.'
'So I suggested to the other members of the committee that the egg be auctioned off and bought back after three days of sale.'
Nasir, keeping the woman's identity a secret in the mosque, announced that the egg was being auctioned off and he himself bid ten rupees for it from his pocket.
According to Nasir, the first bid was for ten thousand rupees and thus the price of the egg kept increasing.
Tariq Ahmed, the former sarpanch of the village, says that there was no large mosque in Mal Maapan Pura, which has only 250 people, so the construction of a large mosque was started, but the work was stopped at the roof level because there were no funds.
He says, 'We had no idea that we would get over two and a half lakh rupees from just one egg.'
The mosque administration had decided that the bidding for the egg would only take place for three days. Nasir Ahmed says that for two days people had bid 10, 20, 30 and 50 thousand on the egg, and each time the egg was returned.
Then it was announced that the bidding would close at 7 pm on the last day and the winner of the last bid would be given the egg.
Sopore's young businessman Danish Hamid was also among the bidders.
When it was announced twice at a bid of 54,000, Danish, sitting in the back row, said loudly, '70,000'.
In this way, this egg managed to collect a total of two lakh, twenty-six thousand, three hundred and fifty rupees in cash donations.
Danish said, 'Although we were not told who the egg belonged to, everyone knew that a poor widow had expressed her feelings by donating this egg and that widow had encouraged well-off people to donate generously.'