The Thief 1

The doors opened and the young Prince entered the throne room.

"Good afternoon father" he greeted with a bow.

"Afternoon Owen, what brings you here?"

"Well I came to see how father is doing" he gave his old man a small smile.

"Hmm, well I am fine, you may leave now" King Bayard dismissed him without a second thought.

"Father, I want to stay and assist with the matters of the kingdom" he protested.

"Have you finished your lessons for the day?"

"Yes your majesty" Owen mockingly bowed.

"What kind of a son do I have?" King Bayard thought. "Can't you just be useful for once?"

"I have been father, we went down to the city and I handled some of the issues the people had" Owen explained.

"What issue did you handle to be precise?"

"There was certain theft among the houses of the wealthy, the culprit had carefully thought out his plan and stole from ten wealthy families but today wasn't his lucky day as I was there."

"What did you do?"

"Well first, I had to link the kind of goods stolen, all ten of them had similar things that were stolen" he thought as he spoke.

"Which was?"

"The robes they wore to the gamble house a couple of days ago and a thousand pieces of silver each had won. On closer inspection, I found out that they were twelve of them that gambled that day, ten of them have had their stuffs stolen, remaining two" he paused to allow his father taken in all that he had said.

"Go on" King Bayard urged, feeling somewhat interested in the story.

"At first what we did, were to visit all ten houses and from there I drew my conclusion. It wouldn't affect any other wealthy family not in that gamble house that day. So we went to visit the eleventh man and I found out that he too had won a certain amount as well but the thief hadn't visited him yet."

The King seemed to be in thought as to what must have transpired. "So we went out to search out the twelveth man, he wasn't wealthy like the rest, he was an average citizen. He lived in a bungalow that was not to small, not too big, his house was where the wealthy families house's stopped. So he wasn't completely poor himself."

"Did you go to the gambling house to ask around?"

"Yes, we went there before going to the twelveth man's house. The owner of the business said twelve men were there a week ago to gamble, somehow the twelveth man got drunk and gambled all his eleven thousand silver coins which he lost that day to the other men" he explained calmly to his father.

"All right, so as of now, you think the twelveth is the culprit?"

"A suspect father, we haven't decided yet" he had am unexplainable expression on his face.

"Why haven't you decided? You got another lead?"

"Not exactly, but when we... "

"Wait, wait, wait. Who are the we? Who went with you?"

"One of the Royal Teachers, Lord Edward and my personal guard Ian. We conducted the investigation together but I did most of the thinking obviously" he praised himself.

King Bayard only nodded at his cheeky son and the prince took that as a cue to continue his tale.

"When we went to the house of the last man, he seemed so depressed as he had lost all his money to that gamble that day. From his story, he said he had stumbled home that day after that gambling to meet his sick son and wife. He went gambling in hopes of doubling the money so he can take care of his family well, but he lost it all still."

"Did you confirm this story?"

"Yes, we asked around and it was indeed as the man had spoken. Seeing as the twelveth man doesn't have money, he would not a bother to the thief just only the eleventh man."

"I see you've been busy. All these happened today?" King Bayard asked, not believing his son could accomplish all in such a short time.

"Okay honestly father, we started out investigation two days ago. We had a lot of people to visit, we took the list of all those present in the shop that day and visited them all. Well all except one."

"Why? According to the shop owner, the said man looked aloof that day, he didn't gamble, nor was he with any woman, he just sat down at a corner drinking his beer as he watched the twelve men play. The name and address he pen down were all fake, so we have no lead of his whereabouts."

"Meaning he is your suspect!"

"Yes Father, whoever he is that has been stealing from these men is skilled and this man looked the part from the owner's description. He may have come there to watch wealthy people gamble, so he knows whom to rob and they made the cut."

"All right, I guess you have you cut the criminal now!!"

"... "

"What!!??"