Year ender 13 February, 2010 - On the rainy afternoon of September 10, 2009, a man dragged himself forward with his hands through the gate leading to the Kuensel office in Thimphu. He was soaked, his dreamy eyes, etched within his dark sun-tanned face, staring right through his folded hands in a plea for help to those who passed by.

Everyone listened to his heart wrenching story. Rinzin Wangdi was paralysed waist down. His own wife abandoned him and ever since, a place near a garbage bin in Hong Kong market, Thimphu, was his home. The 35-year-old man was a bus driver for almost nine years before two vehicle accidents damaged his spinal cord in 2006. He claimed he had nowhere to go and hadn’t eaten in days.

Some employees collected cash contributions, some ordered lunch for him at the canteen, while some went home to fetch warm clothes. One of the employees drove all the way to Gidagom hospital, almost 25 km from Thimphu, to get a wheelchair for Rinzin, because Thimphu referral hospital that day had none.

His story soon won the sympathy of many Kuensel employees. Even visitors to Kuensel were not spared the story. The management then decided to employ Rinzin to man the main gate as corporate social responsibility, providing him free accommodation, food, donated clothing and a monthly salary of Nu 1,000. The office carpenter built a small box house for him at the gate that week. Wearing a black jacket and a cap with “Kuensel” inscribed on them in bold white letters, Rinzin was soon embraced into the Kuensel family.

But not all employees bought his story. Some, who had heard of his background, were sceptical. They warned that Rinzin had tried to hoodwink employees in other organisations. Although Kuensel employees noticed him struggling some 200 m on his wheelchair away from the office to relieve himself, nobody bothered to check. A security guard once complained about a strong smell of alcohol on his breath.

Almost four months after staying in Kuensel, Rinzin claimed to have heard of a doctor in Siliguri, who could cure his disability and decided to leave on the second week of January. Word of his departure spread at the office and its employees once more decided to muster financial support. Employees contributed between Nu 100 to Nu 500 each towards what they thought was a noble cause.

A few days later, a Kuensel employee on leave in Phuetsholing, who had also contributed for Rinzin’s treatment, was taken aback to find Rinzin well on his feet leisurely touring the Phuetsholing town. He was also seen in Punakha. But Kuensel employees expressed disbelief and shunned them as mere rumours.

Rinzin returned to Kuensel after a week to show that the doctor in Siliguri had performed miracles on him without a single scar or a medical transcript. He disappeared again and never returned. All that remains of him today is the wheelchair in his box house and stories of how a single man duped almost 150 employees of Kuensel.

One valuable lesson learned in the Year of the Ox.