The book sleuth

Who broke into Mr. Murthy’s house to steal old books? Mr. Stephen tries to find out.

Our neighbour, Mr. Stephen, was a bibliophile. A month ago, he discovered a rare book on his friend’s bookshelf. As a result, a wealthy foreign industrialist, who was also a collector of rare books, purchased it for an exorbitant amount. Soon my entire neighbourhood made a beeline to Mr. Stephen’s house with all the old books they found in their attic or bookshelves. He had to explain to everyone that not all old books can be called rare books. One day, I accompanied my neighbours, Mr. Murthy and his wife, to Mr. Stephen’s house. My. Murthy had 20 books that had been given to him by his grandfather. As Mr. Stephen examined the books, we heard a jarring noise from next door. “Deepan is doing some carpentry work at his home,” explained Mr. Stephen. 

After he finished checking Mr. Murthy’s books, Mr. Stephen said, “A rare book is one that is in great demand but is hard to find. These are not rare books.” Mr. Murthy was happy, as he didn’t want to sell his books. But his wife looked disappointed. However, later, she told everyone that they owned rare books. After some time, Mr. Murthy and his wife went away to Bangalore for a week. When they returned, they found that the padlock on the front door had been broken. The 20 old books were missing from the bookshelf! Their next-door neighbour, Pramod, had heard a hammering sound the previous night. The police were astonished that the thief did not steal other valuables and took only the books.

“The thief must be from our neighbourhood,” I said and both Mr. Stephen and Mr. Murthy agreed.

“Yes, Rajesh,” said Mr. Stephen. “The thief also knew that the CCTV cameras in the house opposite Murthy’s were not working.”

One of the houses was Mr. Narain’s. When we went there, he told us, “Only Aravind knows my CCTV is not working.” Mr. Stephen spotted a shuttlecock on the lawn and picked it up. “It must have fallen from Aravind’s house,” said Mr. Narain. So we went to Mr. Aravind’s house, where we found his son, Rohit. When Mr. Stephen showed him the shuttle, he said, “It belongs to Jay. When it fell next door, we searched but couldn’t find it.”

“Did Jay ask you about Narain’s and your CCTV?” asked Mr. Stephen.

“Yes and I told him that both were not working.” We went to Jay’s house. “It was you,” said Mr. Stephen.