Scent Of a Thief

“I can catch a thief even if he does not leave any clue at the crime scene,” bragged Rinkoo, the monkey. The bear and the giraffe and the jackal looked at him in surprise.

“What is a clue?” asked the giraffe innocently.

“Anything like, a fingerprint, that helps a detective to catch a criminal.” Said Rinkoo.

“If there is no clue then how can you catch him,” asked the bear.

“Every thief leaves his scent at the crime scene. I can smell the scent of a thief and catch him.”

The monkey looked at his friends proudly and they were all impressed.

Few days later, the monkey got a call early in the morning. Someone had broken into the house of the fox.

The monkey rushed to the fox’s house.

“What things have been stolen?” he asked.

“Well, the thief has taken away some jewellery and some cash and even my brand-new shoes.”

“When did you learn about the theft?”

“In the morning, when I came back from my morning walk, at about five. The main door was open. I knew something wrong had happened.”

“When did you leave for the walk?”

“I go for my walk early in the morning. I get up at three thirty and leave by four.”

“Someone must have known your schedule and he must have broken into your house between four and five. Don’t worry I will catch the thief.”

The monkey searched everything carefully. He noticed a strange smell in one room. It was the smell of dried fish.

“Well, that is a good clue,” thought Rinkoo.

Just then the jackal came. The fox had called him. They were neighbours.

“Did you get the scent of the thief?” the jackal asked eagerly.

“I think so,” Rinkoo answered.

“Let’s catch the thief,” the jackal said enthusiastically.

But the monkey did not encourage him, “You leave it to me.”

Rinkoo recalled that he had seen the wolf buying dried fish in the market. He went to the wolf’s house said, “Where have you hidden the stolen things?”

“What do mean? You think I am a thief?” the wolf growled angrily.

“You can’t fool me with your bravado. You are the thief who….”

The wolf quickly grabbed the monkey by his neck, “How dare you call me a thief?”

“Because you bought dried fish yesterday, you stink of fish and you left that stink in the fox’s house when you broke into his house and….”

The wolf interrupted him, “There is a stink in his house because I gave half of the dried fish to the fox.”

The jackal and the fox had followed Rinkoo to the wolf’s house.

“He is right, he gave me some dried fish yesterday,” said the fox.

Suddenly the jackal laughed loudly.

“We had planned to make a fool of you,” said the jackal to the monkey. “Nothing has been stolen; no thief had broken into his house. But still you got the scent of a thief. Isn’t that wonderful? What a great detective you are?”

The wolf and the jackal and the fox laughed at the monkey.

The monkey was too embarrassed to say anything; he just ran away.

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A post for A to Z challenge

Today’s letter S

You may like to read my earlier post here Rats