Mini Caught The Thief

Mini has come to visit her grandma with her sister Rini and her parents in the summer holidays. Her grandma lives in a village near Raipur, the capital city of Chhattisgarh. She was very happy to see her daughter son in law and her granddaughters after a long time. Mini and Rini too were very happy as they just enjoy the village scenery and the atmosphere there. Secondly, as their grandma loves to say stories, the village children come to her house every evening to enjoy them. Different types of stories from all over the world are in Grandma’s bag. She pulls them out every evening and creates such suspense that every child goes his way imagining what may have happened in the last part of the story. Last night granny told them the story of Sindbad.    

But today Mini woke up in the morning in between huge chaos coming from the kitchen. Grandma seemed to be very furious as her voice could be heard atop every other sound. Last night she said how Sindbad married a nobleman’s daughter. She was so happy when the duo kissed Granny good night and went to sleep. She couldn’t understand what may have happened in the morning? What made Granny annoyed when she is famous for her cool mind and practical thinking? She felt she should know what may have happened. Where is Rini? She looked beside her to find her sister still in deep sleep. She looked at her sleeping sister for a moment in a predicament whether to wake her up or let her be as she is. Then she decided she must go immediately, let Rini sleep some more.

Mini ran downstairs straight towards the kitchen. Yes, there was a big theft in the house and that too from the kitchen. She felt asking Granny who was the thief and what got lost from the kitchen but could see her fuming in rage. Mini stood there listening to everyone’s view on the theft. And listening to all the conversation she could figure out what happened. Someone has broken the mango pickle jar which was kept on the upper shelf. The pickle was made by her Granny and some more days it had to be put in sunlight to get fully prepared. Her Granny’s pickles are famous among the villagers and she used to sell it. Granny suspected everyone in the home and so asked everyone but no one’s answer satisfied her. She said she will surely find out the culprit. And within fifteen minutes she found the thief. It was Jimmy, Granny’s pet dog. The dog still has the pickle oil all over its back and under the paws. Mini was a bit surprised do dogs eat pickles, she thought. In the meantime, Granny declared “Raghu, Jimmy will not live inside the house but in the garage. Now take it away from here and chain it there” Then she went to her room to make a new list of the ingredients needed to make pickles again.

Mini and Rini had their breakfast with bread and butter. Granny’s all-time cook Raghu didn’t give them their glasses of milk. Mini was surprised. She whispered to Rini “Look Chacha didn’t give us milk”

Rini didn’t love milk at all so she said “Let him be. Nothing will happen if you don’t drink milk one day”

Hearing their whisper Chacha said “Mini bitiya Rini bitiya I’m sorry. Today I couldn’t give you milk. Someone drank all the milk kept in the shelf”

Rini said “Then it must be a cat”

“But we don’t have any cat as a pet rather we have Jimmy, the pet dog. He won’t allow a single cat of our neighborhood to enter the kitchen”

Mini said “It’s very mysterious that the milk was drank by someone and the pickle jar too fell off the shelf and broke”

“Yes and Malkin is very angry today” 

Mini thought she should give a try at least once to catch the thief.

Today morning their grandmother went to the terrace to make the second jar of mango pickle and this time her mother and Rini too went to help her. Raghu Chacha had gone to the market. So at the moment there was no one in the kitchen. Mini thought it to be the best time to find out the mystery. She thought of hiding behind the refrigerator. But Granny won’t believe her if she couldn’t produce a proof of steal. So she took her mom’s mobile in her hand. She would click the picture of the thief. She was quite sure that the thief will surely come in the kitchen to taste the milk when nobody is around. Jimmy too was not around so the thief will surely come.

Suddenly Mini could hear the sound of lapping in the kitchen. She peeped from behind the fridge to find a grey cat in the kitchen lapping up the milk kept in the milk bowl. Mini captured the cat’s deeds in the video mode. The cat was just about to finish the bowl when from nowhere Jimmy entered the kitchen and dashed at the cat barking loudly. The cat meowed out loud at jumped on the kitchen sink and from there on the shelf. Jimmy didn’t stop barking and tried hard to reach the cat. Someone came running and shouting in the kitchen “Jimmy, Jimmy! What are you doing here? Go out! I say go out immediately” The voice was of Raghu Chacha. The moment Jimmy turned towards Chacha and stopped barking, the cat got the chance to jump out of the kitchen through the window. After few moments Mini’s mom and sister too appeared in the kitchen. Granny followed them screaming “Raghu, why is Jimmy in the kitchen? Didn’t you bind it with chain as I’ve told you?”

Raghu answered “Yes Maaji I did but I don’t know how it loosened the chain and came here” He then looked around to find if something and saw the knocked over milk bowl and the spilled milk. He murmured “My goodness the milk has been spilled over again” then he turned towards the dog and scolded “Jimmy! You are turning naughty nowadays. Maaji will give you away to someone else. I won’t be able to say anything in favour of you”

Mini came in running from her hiding place. She said to her Granny “Granny, Jimmy isn’t the culprit but its’ someone else”

Granny said “How did you know that?”

“Just watch this video, you will understand everything”

Granny and Mini’s mother watched it together then Granny said “Thank you Jimmy. Now I know that because of you the cat fled. You will be inside the house as you used to be. And Mini! Thank you for taking the video which helped us to identify the culprit. And Raghu now bring out the special ice cream for the detective and the whole family. We will enjoy the delicious kulfi and Jimmy will enjoy a special lunch today”