Indian salesman takes special note of number 786

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2004

SHIMLA, India (AFP) — A salesman in the tiny northern Indian hill state of Himachal Pradesh has developed an unusual hobby -- collecting currency notes whose identity numbers end with the figure 786.

Naresh Kumar, 30, employed in a shop in Shimla, the capital of Himachal Pradesh state, says the three numbers hold special symbolic value for Hindus and Muslims alike.

"It is a very special number for Hindus for whom it symbolises the trinity gods" -- Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the destroyer, Kumar said.

Muslims, meanwhile, believe the number is a coded reference to the phrase: "Bismillahir rahman rahiem" which means "In the name of Allah, the most beneficent, the most merciful".

In India, there had been a great demand among...