PUNE: Not long ago, many people spent sleepless nights over banned Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes. Some were worried over how they would get rid of them without coming under the
scanner of the income tax sleuths
. A desperate few dumped them on roads while others
queued up at banks
to deposit them in their accounts.
Over two months after demonetisation, many seem to be missing these scrapped notes. While a nostalgic few clicked their pictures before depositing them in banks, the rest are simply “missing them”.
Some enterprising traders quickly decided to cash in on the feeling. They came up with wallets made of dummies identical to the scrapped Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes. While the demonetised notes have become valueless, the wallets resembling them are fetching Rs 30 a piece.
Shiv Prakash
, a wallet vendor in Kothrud, says, “My business had gone for a
toss post-demonetisation
. When I added a new stock of wallets resembling the demonetised currency notes, my business picked up.”
Kailash Prabhu
, another vendor on the same street, is also all smiles these days. He has sold around 40 wallets made of dummies of the scrapped currency notes. Only five were left with him on Monday. He plans to order a fresh stock.
Many people have been buying the wallets in large numbers to gift them to relatives. Shantini Patil is one among them. Meanwhile, Ramesh Prabhu, a father of two, says, “My wallet was torn. While I was looking for new ones, this wallet caught my attention. I would like to preserve it and show it to my kids.”
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