Coconut is/was the main commercial crop of Kothazham. Kothazhans fiercely protected it. Once thieves from some neighboring village (as if there are no thieves in Kothazham) came and started stealing coconuts in the night. This annoyed the Kothazhans and they protected it with Pothu. Pothu is a small covering of thorns - mainly made of bamboo thorns. It looked like the trees were wearing a small shirt.
Now to deter the thieves they put it at a fair height so that the ladder used by thieves will be below it. So the thief will not be able climb up. But the thieves were cleverer. They used bigger ladder. Perhaps they were more technology savvy and never used any ladder at all. We do not know. Whatever it is, Kothazhans always thought they are using bigger ladder. So they raised the pothu higher and higher but that did not deter the thieves. At last the pothu was placed on top of the coconut tree itself. Kothazhans wondered how will the thieves now rest the ladder in the sky ! No way. As expected the stealing stopped. Kothazhans patted themselves for a job well done.
The truth of the matter was the thieves were a bit cautious now because they thought that loosely kept pothu may fall on them at any time. Strangely history books have not recorded how many Kothazhan siblings have got injured by the falling ‘pothu’s.
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