gaurishankar srivastav (sunder purohit) lives with his wife savitri (nirupa roy) and two sons vikas (sujit kumar) and ravi (jeetendra). vikas gets married to wealthy nanda (bindu), while ravi continues his education in college. ravi is attracted to usha (sulakshana pandit) and hopes to marry her. gaurishankar is nearing retirement, while vikas is unable to get employment. when vikas gets an offer, he must deposit 5000. nanda borrows this money from her uncle and vikas gets the job. unaware of the fact, gaurishankar who works as cashier in a small firm, steals rs.5000/- to provide money for his son but is followed by the watchman. on his way home, ravi, returning from a tamasha, catches the thief, but is shocked to find his father as the thief. to save him from the punishment, he takes the blame on himself. later, police arrest ravi for stealing 5000 from his employer, which shocks his father. the court finds him guilty and sentences imprisonment for 3 months. gaurishankar passes away after hearing this, but before death, he informs his wife, knowing who the real thief was. savitri is unable to reveal this fact to anybody. when ravi completes his sentence, he returns home and finds that usha is getting married to rakesh (rakesh roshan), dinanath's son. he re-locates to bombay, gets a job, earns well and sends money to his mother, which actually does not reach the right hands as the middle lady bindu manages to get the money by making a false thumb impression. the turn of events after usha meets ravi again is the rest of the story when every fact is made open to everybody.