Ingenious thief

The city was new to us. Its rich architectural and historic heritage had us enthralled. That day being our last there, we decided to visit the university building to gaze at its famous statues. There were hardly any visitors that afternoon and we leisurely clicked pictures and viewed the painted roof.

The wide marble steps leading to the building were spotlessly clean. Just the invitation we needed to rest our tired legs and drink some water.

A few minutes of resting and suddenly we heard someone shouting. Two young men were running past the building. After a very brief chase, the young man in the front dropped a hand bag and ran into the alleys. The pursuer then gave up the chase, picked up the bag and with a wide and triumphant grin on his face jogged back to the girl who was standing anxiously at the bottom of the stairs.The girl took the bag and hugged her boy friend and as both of them checked the bag for missing content, we realised we had just witnessed an attempted theft.

As we saw the lovely couple walking away hand in hand, relief and excitement writ all over their faces, we thought that the young man really displayed bravery and presence of mind.  “The thief could have easily out run him, why did he drop the bag?” I wondered. “Perhaps a ladies’ bag would draw too much attention on a young man and perhaps there are cops just across the street. Whatever the reason, that young man is a hero in his girl friend’s eyes for some time atleast!” commented my husband and all of us left it at that.

After checking our own hand bags, we walked further down the street and took in more sights and sounds of the place. The sun had almost gone down by then and we headed to a cafe near by.

It was while we were sipping coffee that my daughter frantically started searching for her cell phone. Cavernous hand bag was emptied, pockets turned out and no sign of phone! Calling her number elicited no response, the SIM card had obviously been removed. 

Desperate, she tried to recall where she had used it last and realised it was at the university building! She said she might have kept the phone on the steps, after clicking pictures. Had the thief, while on the run, spotted the phone? Had he then decided to pick the smaller item and drop the bigger bag to play it safe? we will never know.

All other subsequent attempts to trace the phone were unsuccessful.  That day, one girl was ecstatic and another miserable.  Now, we will remember the city also for this incident.