king of thieves

The hall was filled with people. Today, a grand exhibition of diamonds was being held in this hall. Many precious diamonds were on display. Most of the people were outside, busy admiring the diamonds. I too had come to the exhibition when suddenly, a man approached me. He grabbed my hand and led me aside. In his other hand, he held a glass of cold drink, which he placed on the windowsill.

"Yes? What is it now?" I asked, irritated, freeing my hand from his grip.

"I'm on duty here. My name is Kamal," he said, smiling.

"Okay, so?" I said, frowning.

"I need to search you," he said in an odd tone.

I was stunned. "What... What do you mean? A search? Why? What are you trying to say?" I stammered.

"It's simple. Hand over whatever you have, or if I search you myself, it won’t be pleasant," he said in a serious tone and had now started addressing me informally.

My face changed color. I stayed silent, unsure of what to say.

"Who are you?" I asked quietly.

"I'm with the intelligence department and assigned here as part of the exhibition security. I’ve had my eye on you from the start. But Mister, forget your tricks working here. Under my watch, you won't even get a whiff of the diamonds, let alone steal them. Got it?" He spoke quickly, glaring at me as if he would devour me.

"But do you have any proof that I’m a thief?" My voice was barely audible.

"Proof? I’ll have that soon enough—once I search you and find tools for stealing diamonds. But it seems you're not in the mood to cooperate. No problem… I have other ways of getting a search done." He smiled, and his hand moved toward his pocket.

Now, there was a pistol in his hand, its barrel pointed at me. Sweat began to bead on my forehead and trickled into my hair. He kept glaring at me.

"Are you going to cooperate, or should I pull the trigger?" he shouted.

"Okay, wait! I’m taking everything out!" I said and began pulling out various tools from my hidden pockets and laid them in front of him.

"Hmm, alright. I’m not arresting you because I don’t want to disturb the exhibition, and, technically, you haven’t committed a crime yet. So, you can go. But if you try anything clever, you'll regret it. I’ll be watching you," he said, collected all the tools, and packed them into a cloth bag.

I thought to myself, This fool! He thinks he’s tricked me and will now steal the diamonds himself. No! I won’t let that happen. He believes he’s outsmarted me by taking my tools, but I had already figured out that he too was a thief like me.

So, when he wasn’t looking, I laced his cold drink with a sedative. Soon, he’d be unconscious, and then the diamonds would be mine.

Thinking this, I moved forward when suddenly, someone bumped into me hard. I nearly fell.

"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention," the man apologized.

"It’s okay," I smiled. He smiled back and walked away.

I made a face watching him go. Then suddenly, I noticed a stain on my trousers—probably from that man. Oh no... What a mess. Now I’ll have to clean this. Annoyed, I headed toward the washroom.

Just as I reached the door, my head started feeling heavy. I got dizzy—and then I fainted.

Someone sprinkled water on my face, and I jerked awake. My head still felt heavy. Once I gathered some sense, I saw Kamal standing nearby, holding a water bottle. I was startled to see him.

"Where are the diamonds?" he asked angrily.

"What diamonds?" I responded angrily, getting to my feet.

"Tell me the truth—where are the stolen diamonds?" he said, pausing briefly.

"What? The diamonds have been stolen? No! That can’t be!" I almost screamed.

"Yeah, don’t play innocent now. Just hand over the diamonds," he said in a venomous tone.

I said, "You're the one pretending to be innocent. You're the thief, and now you're trying to blame me!"

"I didn't steal the diamonds either. I just regained consciousness a while ago and learned about the theft. Everyone outside is being searched. I gave my own search and then came looking for you. I found you unconscious and searched you but found no diamonds. So, I woke you up to question you. And yes—it was you who drugged me, so don’t expect me to let you go easily," he said angrily.

I laughed. "Yes, I mixed a sedative in your cold drink to knock you out."

"What? Cold drink? But I never drank it after I met you," he said, surprised.

"What…? If you didn’t drink it, then how did you pass out?" I said, now equally confused.

"Yes, how did I pass out?" he wondered aloud.

"But you made me unconscious too!" I looked at him suspiciously.

"What? No! I didn’t knock you out. I was unconscious myself!" he replied quickly.

"Then how did we both end up unconscious?" I muttered.

"What’s this stain on your trousers?" he asked, pointing to the mark.

"Oh… I bumped into someone," I said, then suddenly remembered something. My hand instinctively went to my shoulder, where I still felt a slight pain.

"What do you mean you bumped into someone?" he asked, surprised.

"You too…?" I could only get those words out.

"The guy with the yellow tie…" he said in a distant voice.

"Yes, exactly him."

“Hmm…” We both froze in shock.

"This means you didn’t knock me out, and I didn’t knock you out—we were both drugged by that third thief using some kind of injected sedative," I said in a dazed voice.

"And me too…" he said, touching his neck, then winced slightly.

"I thought I had tricked you, and you thought you had outsmarted me—but in reality, we were both fooled by a third thief. He walked away with the diamonds while we stood there thinking we were the smart ones," he said softly.

We both looked at each other in stunned disappointment.