Baba sent for Chhagan and demanded, "Why is the rice uncooked? Are you trying to kill my boys? Don't you feel ashamed? I don't want to see your kala mooh [an idiomatic insult meaning black face]! You have grown as tall as a palm tree, but with about as much sense!"
Baba directed Rustom to give Chhagan four strokes with the cane on his palm.
Rustom administered the punishment, and Baba further chastised Chhagan, "Now get out of my sight! Don't stand around like a statue!"
Chhagan left and everyone thought that the matter had ended. But it was not so.
In a short while, Baba sent Chanji and two other men to bring Chhagan back to him. They searched the premises but could not find him.
Baba later snapped at Raosaheb and Meherjee, "Why are you two sitting here? Go find Chhagan!"
They began looking for him, eventually checking the storeroom, where they found Chhagan hiding. He was holding a razor in his hand, contemplating slashing his throat. Meherjee and Raosaheb rushed forward and grabbed him just in time. They then escorted him to Baba.
After hearing Meherjee's description of the scene in the storeroom, Baba reproached Chhagan, "You should be ashamed of yourself. When you have surrendered your life to me, what right have you to take it away? Your life no longer belongs to you. It is my property! What right have you to destroy that which belongs to me?
"Your behavior is shameless. What is there in dying such a death? Timid, cowardly people die like that. Bravery lies in living while dying, bearing the punishment I mete out."
Baba then forgave Chhagan and embraced him. Chhagan forgot his sorrow and despair in the warmth of the Master's loving embrace and resumed his duties with a light heart, knowing that his life was no longer really his own. It was an object lesson for each of the mandali.
The next morning Baba rose unusually late, at about seven o'clock. All the boys were eagerly awaiting his darshan. Baba's health was not good and he spent most of the day in his crypt. There was no "lecture" that night to the boys, but Baba sat with them while gramophone records were played.
Earlier that day, while coming up the hill, Dastur grew faint and fell unconscious. He was carried to his room and Sidhu was appointed to look after him.