THE STOLEN LUNCH BAG
By
reciting one Hare Krishna mantra a player is chosen to be the cowherd
boy whose lunch bag is stolen. The other children stand in a circle,
and he stands in the middle. A ball represents the lunch bag. The child
in the middle throws the lunch bag very high in the air. Whoever
catches it has stolen the lunch bag and must say loudly, “Hari Bol!” so
that the child in the middle always knows where the lunch bag is. The
catcher then throws it to another cowherd boy in any part of the
circle, who in turn throws it to another child, and so on. The cowherd
boy inside the circle tries to recover his lunch bag by jumping and
running to catch the ball as it flies in all directions above his head,
but he may not leave the circle. No one is allowed to throw the lunch
bag to the child immediately next to him. The ball must be very swiftly
passed from child to child without stop. When the cowherd boy in the
middle of the circle catches his lunch bag, the player who threw the
ball becomes the new player in the middle.