His Best Theft

An old man walked into my book store yesterday. He shuffled slowly forward with a book held close to his heart like it was some kind of paper pacemaker or friend. “Mister Brown, Sir,” he said in a voice a little above that of a whisper, “I have written a book, and I would like you to sell it in your store. I have been working on, it for years, and now it is finally done. No local publisher seemed interested in it, so I self-published a number of copies. It contains a revealing story concerning something that happened repeatedly in our town some years ago. Would you want to sell it? You can have all the profits of selling it. I did not write it for the money I might earn. I just want the people of this town to know the true story about what has happened here, and why certain people should not be trusted.”

He seemed in earnest, so I reached out to take the book, which was obviously self-published, judging from the relatively roughly designed cover. It was called, “The True Story.” I like to sell books written by local authors, so I gave him a definite “Yes, George, my man.” He smiled with a big grin, and after handing me his book, shook my hand with a strength I would not have guessed that he was capable of summoning. Then he just walked out the door, more slowly than he had entered my store. His task was completed.

The Mystery

While my store was not too busy --it was a Monday after all, I flipped through the old man’s book. The story he told related to one of the richest families in town. I learned quite a bit of the devious ways they became that way. Very little of what they did was by any means that were decent and moral. Reading the book would certainly diminish any respect many people in town would have for them.

I enjoyed the book so much that I put it up front so that it could be seen through the display window by people passing by on the sidewalk. As bad luck would have it, I had been drinking coffee all morning and I badly needed to go for a pee. When I returned some time later to my sales desk, I noticed that there were several potential buyers around. One of them came straight to me and said that he believed that a young man had stolen one of the books that I had placed to be seen through the window.

When he described the young man, dressed all in black and walking with strides of complete confidence, I had a good idea who it was. It could be James, one of the younger members of the family I had just read about. He regularly comes to buy books from me, as he is an avid reader. They help him to write his very literate articles in the local newspaper. He seems like a relatively conservative chap except for the clothes that he wears. I have rarely read anything controversial in his newspaper articles.

I checked the books that were in the display window. I soon saw that the old man’s book was the one missing. I then knew its fate. What should I do? James is one of my regular customers. He could shift his purchasing to the chain bookstore, and influence others to do likewise, not something that I would want.

I know the old man’s phone number as he is a regular customer too. I will call him and say that someone bought his book, and tell him that I would like to have another. I will not give up in that way. I will also put it in a less conspicuous place, one near to my desk, just in case James would show up again.

James Reads and Writes

In the bookstore, James had only read the first page in which the names of his family members had been mentioned in a very negative way. That upset him enough for him to want to keep people from buying the book. But when he read further once he was sitting on the couch at home he was horrified by what he learned about some of the nastiness of his older relatives. Now he was thoroughly engaged in reading the entire work. It might prove to be a subject for one of his newspaper articles. He thought that the word ‘exploitation’ should be part of the title, even if it was practiced by the older members of his family. He spent the rest of the day reading, writing and rewriting. It was a difficult job, but one that he knew he had to do.

Finally it was done. He wrote it in newspaper form, but did not give any first or last names. He did not want his own family to sue him. They already had disowned him on account of his more radical articles. He began the piece with the words, “There is a family that has made a lot of money exploiting the people of our fair town. I don’t have to tell you their names because you doubtless already know who this family is and what they have done”. He submitted it to the publisher-in-chief of the paper, who included it in the soon-to-be-published version. The reader response was very positive. People he encountered in the supermarket congratulated him.

The day after its publication, James went to the bookstore to give the book back. He noticed that there was another copy currently kept in a place quite close to where the owner was sitting. When he walked in that direction the owner jumped up and walked briskly in his direction, not because of the theft so much as to congratulate him on his article. When James went to return the book, he did so with an apology “I am sorry about this. I should have known that you would only choose good books for your shop.”

“James, please keep it. You have made a good use of your ‘theft’. Just as Brown said those words, he saw George walk into the bookstore and go straight to the man returning his book. He reached out to shake hands with the young fellow that had made such good use of his book.

The threesome sat down by a table and talked together. James said to George that he wanted to interview him for a sequel to his first article. And then said "It was the best theft I ever made.”