The one less

1. Twelve boys left their village for a fair in the next village.
2. They had to cross a small river.
3. They all crossed.
4. They started counting whether everyone crossed the river safely.
5. But every one left counting himself.
6. So they were always one less of twelve.
7. They started crying about the missing person.
8. A passer by saw them crying.
9. He asked them what was the matter.
10. They told that there were twelve of them.among them and one was missing.
11. The man told them to sit in a row and he would give one hard beating with a stick and that person who got the beat must shout the number.
12. Likewise ,all sat in a row and the man started beating one by one very hard and each one was telling the number as 1,2,3 etc.
13. They were all very happy when the 12th person told number 12.
14. They all thanked the person for bringing the 12th one alive.