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Terry had a problem. He had a beautiful house. No, that wasn’t the problem. The problem was something else. Near his house there was a lake, some hills, and the sea. That wasn’t a problem, either. Terry wanted to look at the wonderful view of the lake and the hills and the sea from his house. And now here’s the problem: Terry couldn’t see the wonderful view from his window. It wasn’t possible to see the lake, the hills and the sea. And Terry really, really liked to look at the lake. But he couldn’t see the lake, because between his house and the lake, there was one very, very big tree. This very, very big tree was in the garden of the house next door. Terry asked his neighbour if it was possible to cut the tree down.
“No!” said the neighbour. “I love my big tree!”
This made Terry angry. He really, really wanted to look at the lake, to see the ships on the sea and the sheep on the hills around the lake.
There was only one thing to do.
Terry became a tree thief. He decided to steal the tree. One night, when it was very dark, he went out to the tree with a spade and he started to dig. He dug and dug and dug. Then he dug some more. And some more. But the tree didn’t move. The tree had very long, strong roots. Terry was very tired. He went to bed. He felt very depressed.
The next morning, he had an idea. He needed another tree thief! He called his friend Trevor and Terry told Trevor that he needed a tree thief.
“Why?” asked Trevor.
“I can’t see the sea!” replied Terry.
“I see”, said Trevor.
“Don’t worry. I’ll come tonight. I’ll bring a spade.”
That night, Trevor went to Terry’s house. Trevor brought a spade with him. Terry and Trevor very quietly went into the neighbour’s garden and started to dig. They dug and dug and dug. Then they dug some more. And some more. But it was no good. Even with Terry and Trevor, they couldn’t dig deep enough to steal the tree.
The next morning Terry had another idea. They needed another tree thief. With three tree thieves, he thought, they could surely steal the tree! There was a problem. Terry didn’t know any other tree thieves. He asked Trevor.
“Sure!” said Trevor. “I know a man called Thomas. I’ll come tonight with Thomas and two spades!”
Terry was very surprised when he saw Thomas arrive with Trevor. Thomas was 80 years old.
“Are you sure he can be a tree thief?” Terry asked Trevor.
“I’m sure!” said Trevor.
That night ,when it was very dark and very quiet, the three tree thieves went quietly to the neighbour’s garden. They started to dig and dig and dig. Then they dug some more. And some more. And this time, the three tree thieves dug so deep that they were able to take the tree from the ground, and steal it. The three tree thieves pulled the tree up out of the ground, and carried it far away. The three tree thieves carried the stolen tree to Trevor’s house. Then the three tree thieves put the stolen tree in Trevor’s garage. The three tree thieves were all very pleased with themselves.
But there was a problem.
“There’s a problem!” said Thomas.
“What’s the problem?” asked Terry.
“I’ve lost my teeth” replied Thomas.
“Your teeth???!!” said Terry and Trevor.
“Yes, my teeth, my false teeth” said Thomas. “I don’t have any real teeth. I’m too old. I have false teeth. Sometimes my false teeth come out. They came out when we were digging up the tree ...”
“That’s not a big problem” said Trevor. “You can buy another pair of false teeth.”
“No” said Terry, “It is a problem – if the police find Thomas’ teeth, they will know who took the tree.”
“Oh no!” said Trevor, “If they find the tree thief’s teeth, they’ll know who the tree thief is ...”
There was only one thing they could do. The three tree thieves decided to go back to the garden and look for the lost teeth.
When they arrived at the garden, it was too late ...
There was already a police car next to the big hole in the ground where the tree was. A photographer from the newspaper took a picture of a policeman holding Thomas’ teeth.
The next morning there was a story in the newspaper: “The Mystery of the Tree Thief’s Teeth”
Before long, a policeman saw that Thomas had no teeth.
“Where are your teeth, Thomas?” he asked. “You are the tree thief! I’m arresting you!” The policeman arrested Thomas. Thomas told the police about Terry and Trevor. The police arrested Terry and Trevor too. The police were very pleased.
In prison, Thomas put his hand in his pocket. He had a surprise.
“My teeth!” he shouted. “Here are my teeth! The night we took the tree I made a mistake. I put my wife’s false teeth in!”
“Now the police will think your wife is the tree thief!” said Terry and Trevor.
“No, that’s impossible!” replied Thomas, “That night she was playing bingo with her friends. Lots of people saw her playing bingo!”
The police asked an expert dentist to identify the teeth. The expert dentist looked at the teeth.
“No!” said the expert dentist. “These teeth are not Thomas’ teeth! Thomas is innocent!”
Terry, Trevor and Thomas cheered.
The police were no longer pleased, and the three tree thieves were free.
THE END
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Write a story about a crime. Send it to us.
Oksana Demchenko writes “Approximately one year ago, while I was still staying in Norway with my host family, I decided to visit my friend Irina who lived and worked as an au pair in Oslo. I had often been thinking of going to the capital city, just for a change ( I lived in the countryside with my host family). So I took a whole week off and a little suitcase, and full of excitement and undiluted joy got on the bus, and after seven and a half hours reached the longed for destination.
The first two days were miraculous. The third one brought us back to earth. Well, I had gathered from the newspaper news before that the ratio of murder was quite high in Oslo (a multinational city), but of course I was sure that I would not experience anything like that personally. But I was very wrong.
When my friend and I came back home after having spent a wonderful evening in the centre of the city, we found out to our surprise that the front door was not locked. Irina’s host family was in Argentina that week, so there were only two of us on the premises. First my friend began to blame herself for such sloppy behaviour but I stopped her as I knew for sure that she had locked the door. I had seen her doing that and putting the key in her purse. Then we got scared as that meant that somebody else unlocked the door. Who? Why? Was he or she still inside? Carefully, we opened the door and entered the house. It was quiet. There were three floors in it, so Irina went downstairs to check her room while I went upstairs into the kitchen. Then I heard a scream. I do not like it when people scream because it always means trouble. I ran downstairs and found my delirious and quivering friend sitting on the floor. Hundreds of pieces of broken glass were scattered all over the room. Everything around was an abundantly clear indication that someone had been looking for something. Irina kept a rather hefty sum of money in her wardrobe but, fortunately, it had not disappeared. There were bloodstains chartering the path of their owner all the way up to the third floor. We went to the neighbours who shared the same house to ask if they had seen or heard anything. They had not. We called Irina’s host family in Argentina first and then the police who promised to come the next day and told us not to touch anything.
My poor friend was puce with panic at the prospect of spending the night in the house. Think if they came back! So we checked all the rooms, locked all the doors we could find in the house, took big frying pans to have beside the bed and went to sleep.
I do not know why, but for me it was like a little adventure. I got just a bit excited, but on the whole maintained the feeling of serenity and equanimity. At first I thought that my friend was worrying way too much about that burglary attempt, but now I understand that she was also worried that that the incident could mar her relations with the host family as she had been left responsible for the house.
Eventually the police arrived, and we answered all their queries once more. It was strange, but it looked as if nothing had disappeared from the house. Only a month later they found out that their saving box was not there. As far as I know the police did not find the burglar. That is a pity, because that was the kids’ saving box.”
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Nada Elsaedy writes “There was a bad boy whose name was Dan and who made his parents angry with him. One night he was walking with his friends in the public garden. He saw a beautiful jacket that was owned by a little boy, but he liked the jacket so when the little boy was playing, Dan took the jacket and ran away. Next morning when his mum came to his room to wake him up she saw the jacket on the chair. She asked him about it but he didn’t tell her the truth at first but she found out at last and she was very angry with him and she asked him where he took the jacket from and she asked him to return it from where he had taken it and then to come back home and not go out again until he knew that he was wrong to do that and never do it again. He knew that he was wrong and so he became a new person.”
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