‘Kanjus’ (The Miser) is the story of a stingy old man named Haidar Ali. A resident of Old Dhaka, Haidar Ali lives with his only son Kazim Ali and only daughter Laili Begum. His wife has passed away, but the household is run by several sharp-tongued and cunning servants who are well aware of their master’s every weakness. They are Lal Mia, Kala Mia, and Bodi Mia. However, it is eventually revealed that among them, Bodi Mia is not a real servant at all — rather, he is Laili’s lover, disguised as a servant, and the two are deeply in love.
Everyone in the neighbourhood knows Haidar Ali as an extremely miserly man, and many stories are told about him. For instance, to avoid spending money, he has made it a rule to fast for three months a year; to avoid paying wages, he accuses his servants of theft and drives them away; he deliberately picks fights with them, and so on.

The plot takes a new turn when Haidar Ali decides to marry the eighteen-year-old Marzina Begum from the neighbouring house — the very same girl with whom his own son Kazim Ali had fallen in love at first sight. Rather than acknowledging his son’s feelings, Haidar instead arranges Kazim’s marriage to a widow. At the same time, he plans to marry off his daughter Laili to his fifty-year-old friend Aslam Beg, so that he does not have to pay any dowry and bears no expense whatsoever.

In this situation, with the help of Golabjan, Haidar invites Marzina and Mirza Aslam Beg to his home. But in the meantime, with Lal Mia’s assistance, his son Kazim steals the pot of money Haidar had kept hidden. Instigated by Kala Mia, Haidar accuses the servant-disguised Bodi Mia of being the thief.

After a series of dramatic events, it is revealed that Marzina Begum and Bodi Mia — who had been posing as a servant — are in fact the long-lost daughter and son of Haidar’s own friend Aslam. Finally, through a dramatic turn of events, the play reaches a happy ending with the marriage of Haidar’s son Kazim to Aslam’s daughter Marzina, and Aslam’s son Badiuzzaman to Haidar’s daughter Laili Begum.