The Thief's Story

1. The Flattering Thief Meets the Carefree Writer

The story opens at a wrestling match where fifteen-year-old Hari Singh spots his next potential target: twenty-five-year-old Anil. Hari sizes him up with professional criminal calculation:

• Anil's Profile: Tall, lean, easy-going, kind, and simple -- in Hari's eyes, 'an easy target for a young confidence trickster'.
• Hari's Art of Flattery: Hari initiates conversation by flattering Anil: 'You look a bit of a wrestler yourself.'
• The False Identity: When Anil asks his name, the boy lies smoothly: 'Hari Singh'. He adopted a new alias every month to keep ahead of the police and his former employers.

Hari follows Anil home and asks for work. Anil honestly admits he has no regular income and cannot pay wages. When Anil asks, 'Can you cook?', Hari lies again: 'I can cook.' That night, the meal Hari prepares is so atrocious that Anil feeds it to a stray dog and tells Hari to leave. But Hari smiles his most appealing smile, and Anil relents, laughing, patting his head, and promising to teach him not only to cook, but also to write his name, write whole sentences, and add numbers.

2. The Writer's Erratic Life and the Petty Theft

Hari enjoys working for Anil. In the morning, he makes tea, and later buys the day's supplies, routinely pocketing a profit of about one rupee a day from the grocery money. Hari knows Anil is aware of this petty pilfering, but Anil never mentions it or complains.

Anil's profession is fascinating and precarious:

"He wrote for magazines -- a queer way to make a living! He made money by fits and starts. He would borrow one week, lend the next. He kept worrying about his next cheque, but as soon as it arrived he would go out and celebrate."

3. The Nocturnal Robbery and the Rationalization of Greed

One evening, Anil arrives home with a crisp bundle of banknotes: six hundred rupees in fifty-rupee notes, having sold a book to a publisher. He tucks the money securely beneath his mattress and falls peacefully asleep in the moonlight streaming through the window.

Hari sits up on the floor, battling an internal moral rationalization:

• 'If I don't take the money, he'll only waste it on his friends. After all, he doesn't even pay me.'
• 'If I take it, I can catch the 10:30 express to Lucknow and live like an oil-rich Arab for a week or two!'

Silently on hands and knees, Hari creeps to the bed. Anil's face is calm, unlined, and tranquil; Hari's own face has more scars, though mostly from street fights. Hari slides his hand gently beneath the mattress, locates the bundle, and draws it out without a rustle. Anil sighs in his sleep and turns onto his side, facing directly toward Hari! Terrified, Hari quickly crawls out of the room and bolts into the street.

4. The Inexplicable Hesitation at the Railway Station

Hari tucks the notes into his pyjama waistband, tied with the string, and runs toward the station. When he reaches the platform, the 10:30 Lucknow Express was just moving out. The train was still gaining momentum; any ordinary thief would have leaped into a carriage.

"I had hesitated, for some reason I can't explain, and I lost the chance to get away. When the train had gone, I found myself standing alone on the deserted platform. I had no idea where to spend the night... The only person I knew really well was the man I had robbed!"

Hari walks into the dark bazaar and sits down on a bench in the maidan under the central clock tower. It is midnight. A chill November drizzle begins, turning into a heavy downpour that drenches his pyjamas, soaking the six hundred rupees against his skin.

5. Return, Silent Forgiveness & A New Dawn

Hari returns to Anil's room, trembling with vastly more fear than when he stole the money -- for slipping stolen money back undetected is far more difficult than taking it. In the grey dawn, he gently slides the wet bundle back under the mattress.

The next morning, Hari wakes up late. Anil has already prepared tea. He hands Hari a fifty-rupee note. Hari's heart sinks with terror: 'My heart sank. I thought I had been discovered.'

"'I made some money yesterday,' Anil explained. 'Now you'll be paid regularly.'
My spirits rose. But when I took the note, I saw it was still wet from the night's rain.
"'Today we'll start writing sentences,' he said."

The wetness of the note proves beyond any doubt that Anil knows everything: he felt the damp notes under his mattress, realized Hari had stolen them, and recognized that Hari had voluntarily chosen to return. Yet Anil speaks not a single word of rebuke, scolding, or accusation. He does not summon the police. He smiles at Hari with authentic, unforced warmth, and Hari smiles back -- from his heart, without any false artifice.