The Mystery of Mysteries

Hello friends,

I am back again. As I told you earlier I was busy reading Mystery books; Mystery of the Invisible thief, Mystery of the Vanished prince, Mystery of the Pantomime cat, Mystery of the Spiteful letters and Mystery of the Hidden house. Do you want to read a mystery written by li’l ol’ me? Well here you go!

The Mystery of the Invisible Honey Thief

 

Did you catch him?” shouted the king at his soldier. The soldier replied, “Sire, the thief is too cunning to catch. We’ll need a lot of people to catch him and a clever idea to fool him.” Hearing this, the king got worried. Even the cleverest men in his court had failed.

The thief they were behind was someone who loved a lot of honey. Every day this thief would go into a house on a particular road in town and steal honey. And once he also came to the palace but ran away on hearing the soldiers.

The king’s job in court was the same for a month. Hearing complaints on the case of stolen honey! He had no time for anything else. But the king always would think, “Why, why does this thief only steal honey? Why doesn’t he steal the other things which are way more precious?” The king was in a fix. He was curious to know who the thief was.

One day the king was having a walk with his minister in his garden. Just then, his chef came running towards him. He cried out, “Sire, the devil has come, the devil who steals honey.” On hearing this, the king was shocked. He summoned his guards and asked them, “Did any of you see someone come in the palace grounds?” All the guards kept silent. Then the minister said, “This someone stole all the honey in the palace.” Then one of the men came forward and said, “Sire, I saw a shadow and someone speaking. So, I thought it was some of the soldiers and didn’t bother to see who it was.” “Oh! You should have seen who it was.” said the king and he send them back to work.

After they had left, the king asked his minister, “Can you think of some way to catch the thief?” the minister said, “Give me a day, your majesty. I’ll think it over. This thief who steals is very cunning.” Saying this, he went on his way.

That night, the king had a dream. In this dream, he was a small boy who lived in a poor house. One night, he heard a strange noise in his small kitchen. As this boy was very curious, he went there and saw a dark shadow licking the honey pot clean. This shadow was big and scary. The boy slowly said, “S-sir, err… whoever you a-are, I-I … just w-wanted to t-tell y-y-ou that t-this honey is actu-ally…err… meant for t-this family.” But the shadow only stared back. The boy got very scared and confused. He ran away but just into another shadow……and then there was nothing but darkness.

The king woke up with a start. It was still very dark outside. He could hear the owl hooting. Suddenly he felt as if someone was standing just outside his room….maybe on the balcony. The king, gathering courage, slowly went outside. He could hear his guards speaking. One of them told the other, “Hey…. I found out a secret” “Did you? Asked the other. “Yeah…, uh….What was I going to tell now? Yeah…The king has…”, and before he could complete his sentence, the other told, “Hush! Lower your voice. What if the king is awake?” On hearing this, the king was shocked. He wanted to talk to his trusted minister. He kept awake all night and thought out a plan.

The next day when the minister arrived, the king was delighted. The minister was called to the king’s room. When the king saw his minister, he immediately asked him, “Have you thought of a plan?” And before the minister replied the king said, “If you haven’t, don’t worry, because I have!” Then the minister said, “Oh! Your highness, I really do have a plan. My plan is to….”But the king interrupted and said, “Well, that’s nice. Now if my plan fails, we could try out yours. Ha-ha….” The king seemed to be very happy. “But…” he added “we may not need your plan, because mine will never fail! Ha-ha!” The king was in a really joyous mood. “My plan is simple” he said.

Even after an hour, the king and his minister were still in their room. This made the queen worried. She asked one of the guards to call the king for her. When the guard was in front of the room he heard the king and his minister talking. They were still discussing about their plan. The guard stood silently behind the door and listened. The guard heard the king’s plan. Little did the king and the minister know that this guard was listening outside. He was the same one that the king had heard the night before.

Oh no! This guard now knew the whole plan. He went towards his son who was also a guard and said, “Listen carefully.” “Yeah, I’m really careful” said his son. “Okay then. Now be quiet. See…” he said. “Uh… look at what?” “Don’t look at anything. You just listen to me.” “If you say so father, Continue.” said his son. “Humph….I could if you’d let me to” He said “I am letting you” “Are you?” “Yeah” “Oh! I didn’t know that. Now let’s stop with this. Okay. Today I heard the king talk to his minister about a plan to capture the honey thief.” Said the father. “Did you?” Asked the son. “Then tell me the plan.” “I’ll tell you…. But not here… the king has many people… and if one of them hears us……” “I know what you are going to say” interrupted the son “We are doomed.”

These guards were lucky that nobody heard their conversation. It was daytime. Just then a few other guards saw a huge person trying to jump over the wall. They started to run after it. But this one cunningly had quite a narrow escape. The gate to enter the palace was a bit too far, so none of the guards could reach him.

Just then the king came there. Before his men could speak, he said, “I just saw the intruder too…from my balcony. Maybe he is the honey thief.” “Yes sire, he can be the thief. But…”Before this guard could complete his sentence, another said, “But this is not a man…He is strangely overgrown.” “Hmm” said the king, “Well then, let’s find out.” The king thought he was going to solve this sweet mystery.

That evening, he was walking along with the queen in his garden when she asked him, “Well my lord, did you get the solution to your biggest worry?” “No, but I’m sure I’ll find out who the thief is….pretty soon.” “Yes, I’m sure too that you will” she said. Just then a maid came there and announced that tea was served. Both the king and the queen left their beautiful garden and went inside.

In the palace the minister joined them. After tea when the queen left, and the minister and the king were all alone, they started talking about the theft in the houses again. “Well then, I have a feeling that my plan won’t work.” The king said, “We’d better try out your plan tonight.” “Yes, we must.” Saying this the king left. “I’ll just hope my plan works.” Thought the minister and left.

Meanwhile, the father-son met again. The father said, “Hear the plan I was going to tell you.” “Plan? What plan?” “The honey thief capturing plan.” “Oh! Yeah” “Okay….The plan was to collect all the honey in the palace and keep it in a single room where the king’s treasure is kept.. The room should be guarded.” “Guarded?” “Yes and the good news is that the king asked me and a few others to guard the room.” “Ooh-Ooh…. I get it now.” Said the son excitedly, “We guard and let our……” “Ssshhh! Not so loud. Yes, you are right for the first time… Congratulations my son! congratulations!!” Said the father and went on his way.

That evening, all the honey in the palace was transported to a small room in which the king kept all his treasure. The guards were looking very happy. By the time it was night all the honey was transported. The father stood guard of the room. The son was at the gate at the back of the palace. He was alone as this gate because it was facing a very steep mountain, which nobody would bother to climb. It was getting very dark.

Suddenly there was a loud noise. The first guard was fighting a huge creature. And what do you know? This thief was just a big trained bear. The rest of the guards heard the noise. In fact, the king too came there along with his queen. On seeing all the people the bear started making funny noises and hugged the guard. The son had stood there with a cowardly look. He was really a fool. He stammered out the whole story. A few of the most courageous guards caught the bear who tried very hard to escape. After sometime the bear was finally tied up. Along with the bear, the frauds were also caught.

They had heard their thief coming. It was a very funny sight to see him clamber up the mountain. The guard, who stood at the gate, let him in. The bear slowly came near the room where the honey was. This guard got very angry as his bear was only stealing honey! He said, “Ooh! You little brown bear…Why don’t you steal the rest of the valuable stuff instead of this mere honey?” The bear got very very angry. He hit his master on the nose and knocked him down. And then they were discovered.

All the people gathered. Everybody were shocked when they saw the bear. Nobody could believe it. Hearing all the murmur in the gathered crowd, the king said, “Well, I guess you’ll have to believe this. I’m positive it is the thief…..or who else would steal just honey?” The next day, the king was in a very happy mood. The mysterious honey thief has been captured. The two guards were caught too. “I know that you all are very eager to hear the reason behind this robbery. Well, it goes like this….. Two of our guards were fake. They had trained this bear to actually steal the valuable things in my palace. But this sweet little bear refused to obey, even though it did steal honey. I have given them a punishment of imprisonment for a few years. The bear has been sent to a wild bear trainer who works for the circus.” And then, the king, looking at the happy faces of his courtiers, raised his voice and announced, “THE CASE OF THE MYSTERIOUS HONEY THIEF IS CLOSED!” And everyone gave a huge roar of applause.

 Did you like it? Its my biggest story ever.

Thank you for the kind comments.

-Rupashri