Once upon a time, Lalaji (Lala Lajpat Rai) and Mahatma Gandhi were staying at the house of an ardent nationalist, Shiv Prasad Gupta.
On their first day at the house of their host, Lalaji changed into new clothes after his bath and left his soiled clothes in the bathroom.
The next morning, he found the clothes washed and neatly folded, on his bed. He was delighted. Lalaji had been travelling a lot for the cause of freedom movement at that time and he had many more soiled clothes with him. He politely asked Mr. Gupta if he could put the whole lot of dirty clothes for washing. Mr. Gupta said he certainly could.
So Lalaji got all his clothes washed.
When the time came for them to leave, Lalaji said he would like to tip the servant who had washed his clothes. His host said it was not necessary but Lalaji insisted.
Mr. Gupta went in search of the man who had washed the clothes of Lalaji, and was shocked to know that the clothes had not been washed by any of his servants.
Finally, one of the servants said, “It was the other man in the room with Lalaji who washed all the soiled clothes. I saw him hanging out the clothes to dry.”
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Lala Lajpat Rai (1865-1928) was an Indian revolutionary, politician and author, popularly known as Punjab Kesari. He died of severe head injuries sustained 18 days earlier during a baton charge by police in Lahore, when he led a peaceful protest march against the all-British Simon Commission Indian constitutional reforms.