When two teenage boys went missing from their homes in a West Bengal town, it's their parents who gave the police the vital lead to trace them.

"The boys haven't gone to Mumbai to make it in Bollywood," they told police, "They wanted to become mafia dons."

The parents knew because the boys would often talk of the underworld, goons and easy money.

Samrat Ghosh, 14, and his eighth standard classmate, Abhijit Guin, always wanted to be feared criminals. So, they left home last week to achieve their 'dreams'.

And where better to achieve it than Bihar?

Days after going missing from home, Ghosh called up his father and told him he was in a village adjacent to Jharkhand, having failed to get to Bihar.

Police promptly went to the village and caught hold of him. Ghosh then disclosed that his friend was working in a tea stall in Rourkela, Orissa, waiting for someone suitable to take him to Bihar. Guin was also brought back home.

On Thursday, a beaming Ghosh, oblivious to the gravity of his dreams, told police: "Well, we went away to join the mafias, but couldn't get to Bihar."

Ghosh's father Aloke said his son would often inquire about what a mafia was and would keenly watch criminals and crimes in films and on television.

The families said their sons were greatly influenced by Hindi films and would imitate the gangsters portrayed in them.

Ghosh said he was forced to call home unable to bear the hardship of life on the run.

After the police traced him, he tried to fabricate a story of abduction; but later they confessed that they had fled to become mafia dons in Bihar.