The Thief’s Hand
A thief, while visiting a friend, saw where his friend hid his money. He learned his friend was going away for a few days. On the night his friend left town the thief came to his friend’s plot. His friend lived in a two-room flat that was part of a long row of similar flats. The thief came to the friend’s door at three in the morning with a hammer and a jimmy. He was surprised to see that the padlock was not on the outside of the door. His friend must have changed his plans! But he needed money and could not wait, so he went ahead with his plan. He’d just steal the money while his friend was asleep.
The thief was an expert, and so he was able to chip away at the mud wall and cut a whole in the supports so that he could unlock the door without disturbing the neighbors. But when he broke through to the inside wall, some mud fell to the floor and his friend woke up. He jumped out of bed, grabbed his machete and flashlight. Incredible! A hand inside the house! He brought the machete down on the hand and severed part of it. The thief felt pain and fear. He pulled out his hand and ran. He didn’t shout. He was frightened. If the neighbors knew he was a thief and caught him they would kill him. He was bleeding badly. He didn’t know where to hide. He was afraid people would follow his trail of blood. He thrust his hand under his jacket and ran to the nearby outhouse. He sat down by the toilet hole, took off his shirt, tied it around his arm to stop the bleeding, and then he put the half hand inside the toilet and lay there. He was shaking. He vomited, and then he passed out.
When people woke up in the morning they went to the toilet and found the body lying there. What is this? Oh! Is this so and so? What happened to him? Dead! He is cut on one hand. Why? How?
The friend heard the commotion. He saw the body. ‘Oh, my God — this is my friend! What have I done?’ He told his neighbors, ‘I am the one who cut him on the hand, he is a thief, the other part of his hand is in my house.’
It was not just the friend who could not believe it. Nobody could believe it. The thief was someone they all knew. He was well educated, had been to secondary school, was always polite. He was even helpful, giving presents to people who were in need, but after some time people in the neighborhood noticed that there were fewer robberies, and so their idea of the thief hardened. They no longer thought of him as having been polite, kind, helpful. He had been wiley, conniving, a snake.