The Barber's Clever Wife by Narinder Dhami

Author:Narinder Dhami
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2020-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

“Me too,” chorused the other thieves. They all gathered round as Karan divided up the food, and began cramming it into their mouths.

“Urrrgh!” Mohan spluttered, coughing loudly. “Sweetmeats? I’ve never tasted anything so disgusting!”

“It’s horrible!” Karan gasped, spitting a mouthful on to the ground.

“My mouth’s on fire!” roared another.

The thieves made a dash for the river to wash their mouths out with water. They blundered around in the dark, bumping into each other and yelling and spitting. Under the light of the burning torches on the city walls, Karan emptied out the pot. The top was filled with vegetable peelings and chilli seeds, mixed with bits of eggshell and lumps of dirt. There was no gold at the bottom either, just some lumps of firewood.

“You idiot!” Karan roared, grabbing Mohan by the neck. “That woman’s fooled you again!”

“It’s not my fault,” Mohan whined sulkily.

“You’ll try again tomorrow night,” Karan ordered furiously. “And this time we will get that gold! I’m not going to let a simple villager get the better of me!”

In the morning, when Ruby awoke, the first thing she did was check to see if the big brown jar was missing. When she saw it was gone, she laughed heartily as she thought of the greedy thieves cramming their mouths with vile-tasting rubbish. But when she told Bulbul what she’d done, he was so petrified, he shook in his shoes.

“B-b-but what if they come back again to take their revenge?” he wailed.

“Then we must be ready for them!” Ruby replied in a determined voice.

That evening, the thieves set off for Ruby and Bulbul’s village again. This time, Mohan climbed in through the window and hid under Ruby’s bed, while Karan and the rest of the thieves waited in the street outside.

“Ruby,” said Bulbul nervously, when they lay down to sleep, “I’m still very worried about the thieves coming back.”

“Don’t panic,” Ruby said calmly. She smiled to herself as she noticed the edge of a grubby white shirt poking out from under her bed. “I’ve hidden the gold in a much better place than that old pot.”

Under the bed Mohan’s ears flapped.

“Where?” asked Bulbul.

“In the big mango tree in the courtyard,” Ruby replied. “It’s safe there.”

“That’s what you think,” Mohan muttered to himself. Again he waited until Ruby and Bulbul were asleep. Then he slipped out of the bedroom, and joined his fellow thieves in the street.

Karan scowled at him. “Well?” he demanded.

Mohan pointed at the mango tree. “The gold’s up there,” he said smugly. “I told you I’d find it this time!”

By the light of the moon, Karan could see a large sack hanging from a branch.

“There it is!” he said, rubbing his hands together. “Mohan, you climb up and bring it down.”

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