THE SHOP OWNER AND THE ABSENT-MINDED THIEF

                                              Lữ                            

I

 

The shop window was broken. The police came to investigate and asked the owner what had been stolen. They expected a long list with lots of items taken; but no, the answer surprised everybody.

“I don’t know what has been stolen. I am sure that the thief must have taken something very precious. But right now it looks like he didn’t take anything. I am very much in doubt,” said he.

The policemen were not happy with the answer.

“No money stolen?” They asked.

“No, sir, simply because they broke in at nigh, and at night there is no cash in the store. I bring all the money home before closing time,” replied the owner.

“Were the most expensive items of the store stolen?” the police asked again.

The owner shook his head looking very confused.

“No, and this is very weird. Some items are worth tens of thousands of dollars, but the thief did not touch any of them. So I think that he must have taken something very valuable. Only right now I don’t know what it is.”

Then the insurance company brought in their agent. The owner told the agent the same story he gave the police.

“If you don’t tell us exactly what has been stolen, we can’t pay your claim.” The agent emphasized.

The owner seemed not sure what to do.

“Frankly I don’t know what has been stolen. If I lied, I would make it more difficult.”

The agent laughed.

“I did not ask you to lie, I only asked you to look over your stuff more carefully. Have a good day.”

 

II

 

The thief however, was the most dumfounded. He did not remember what he had stolen when he broke into the store some nights before. It did not make any sense that he would break into the store and then  leave empty-handed. It was unreasonable. A professional thief like himself couldn’t be that absent-minded. He was sure that he had stolen something very valuable, and at that moment, it was in his house. He went over his stuff one more time. The more he looked, the more confused he became. He couldn’t figure out what he had taken from the store. He wondered if the media was right. Reporting the theft, some of the papers wrote that he was an absent-minded thief, breaking into the store and forgetting stealing. He felt so ashamed. Was he such a bad thief? Especially when he read that, according to the owner, all the costly stuff was still intact. Why was it all so strange? Has he never broken into that expensive shop? What he could not accept was that he had already broken into the store but left empty-handed.

 

III

 

What had the thief stolen from his store? The owner kept on wondering feeling that he had lost something very important to him. A thief who disdainfully refused to take the most expensive things from his store had to be an extraordinary thief. He might be a private investigator who broke into his store to copy some documents. He thought of his private letters which even his wife did not know about. Or maybe it was the e-mail stuff in his computer clearly he had lost something which was more valuable than money, something related to his reputation.

He felt insecure. He regretted not destroying those letters. He had wanted to keep them as mementoes; something most personal to himself. The thief had to be a private investigator. Maybe his wife hired him. Who knew? She was loaded with money. The private investigator’s duty was to copy documents, not to steal. But how did she know about what he had hidden?

So what had the thief taken from him? Surely the thief had taken something precious, something that he valued as much as his life. He was so naïve, believing that no one could find out what he had hidden with utmost care. No one could make up for such a loss.

 

IV

 

Was it true that he had not taken anything? The thief tried to think back. Was he drunk that night? Why didn’t he remember anything? Perhaps he had some serious illness. Was he absent-minded? No, he was sure that he had stolen something which, he thought, was very valuable.  And now, after a night sleep, he forgot where he had hidden it in his own house.

Hiding was his profession. He had to have hidden it so secretly that even he himself couldn’t remember the hiding place. Temporarily he accepted that explanation. He burst into laughter, admiring his own knack of hiding. Once he had hidden something, no one had a chance to find it. He, himself, couldn’t find the hiding place, let alone others. All his life, he had hidden a lot of secrets. He had fooled the police so easily. And this was the first time that he could fool himself. He couldn’t find the valuable thing he had just stolen.

 

V

 

Having had done things stealthily, the owner caught himself acting like a thief. He had stolen his wife’s trust for many years. And now everything was out in the open. No wonder recently her attitude to him seemed a little bit strange. He could feel some contempt, some pity when she looked at him.

What would he tell her? Should he apologize?  Or should he just keep silent, pretending nothing had happened? But could he endure her contempt, her doubt? Living together without being frank with each other, without trusting each other did not make a life happy. Suddenly he found out that he was not truly happy in his family life. If he had been happy, he would not have done anything stealthily like a thief.

And for his wife, was she happy? Was she a kind of person to hire a private investigator to break into the store to his office to copy his personal letters? Or all was only the product of his own doubt, his own imagine? If it was like that, why did the thief did not take anything in the store? It was very unreasonable. This was not an ordinary theft, it was a document theft. He felt both ashamed and upset, and painful, too.

Yes, she had to be very unhappy. She had no way to tell him how she felt. She was the victim of her doubt, her jealousy, her fear and her contempt. Why did she hire the private investigator to copy his letters? She wanted to have proof to insult him? No, she only did that because of her suffering. Perhaps, she did not know what she was doing. And since when did she become a person who did things in secret?

 

VI

 

Where did he hide the stolen thing? What did he take from the store? Why did he become so absent-minded?  The thief began to look deeply into himself. Perhaps this was not the first time he had forgotten the hiding place. The habit of hiding things that had taken root deeply in his mind prevented him from expressing anything openly. Even that was only a feeling or a thought.

Surely he could deceive, could fool even himself. He, himself, couldn’t find the hiding place. Even worse, he couldn’t remember what he had hidden. So, were the numerous thoughts that passed his mind his own?  Was it true that he also buried some

of his most sincere thoughts so deeply in his sub-consciousness that even he himself couldn’t know what they were? And was it truly impossible to get in touch with them?

Who was he? He was a professional thief. For the first time, he realized that he had stolen his own self. He felt that he was losing his own self. His life had been and was being stolen by himself, and hidden somewhere he couldn’t find out.  Suddenly he longed to be honest. Suddenly he wanted to look for his true self. He wanted to live truly; at least he had to live truly to himself.

 

VII

 

The store owner couldn’t live with his wife as a two-faced person. He had to change his life-style. He needed to stop hiding. Hiding couldn’t bring happiness to him and his wife. That was clearly so. He wished for a free space. He found out that in their relationship the honesty was missing.

What had the thief taken from his store? For the first time, the shop owner believed that the thief did not take anything. He was an absent-minded thief. Instead of stealing something, he left the owner a valuable gift, the sincerity. Only sincerity could bring him and his wife happiness. He wanted to live sincerely with his wife. With that thought he felt ringing with joy, the joy he had lost for some time. Yes, he would live truly to his own self.

 

VIII

 

That afternoon the owner and the thief met each other in a park. They did not recognize each other. But through some exchanging of words, they quickly became friends. They talked through the afternoon. They were delighted to find a rare sincerity in each other. And furthermore, each felt that the other was a happy person. They parted in happiness; each feeling that he was very lucky to have a new friend. And each felt he had learned something very valuable from the new friend. Each had an impression that with his new friend, he would not have anything to hide or to hold back.

 

                                                                                                                    Sunnyvale, 25-3-2008

                                                                              Lữ

                                                        (translated from Vietnamese by Sr. Huệ Thiện)

Vietnamese Version: Người Chủ Tiệm và Tên Trộm Đãng Trí