But he had hung around the back along the side behind some bushes and watched as guests would come and go near the bar area by the beach. After darkness had fallen he saw the young white couple walk up from the beach and order some drinks from the bar and sit at the table near the corner of the area. He watched them as the young woman had slung her bag across the back of the chair. He could see them clearly in the lights, with all the bugs flying around, but he knew they could not see him in the shadows of the bushes beyond the reach of the lights.

When he saw the young women get up and leave after a while with her purse still hanging on the back of the chair, he edged a little closer to the grass edge that was closest to the table. When he saw the young man get up and walk toward the bar with the bag still hanging there, he made his move. Without looking around he marched quickly under the lights straight to the table, he unslung the bag from the table and marched right past into the darkness on the other side. Once in the safety of the night he made haste to empty the contents of the bag into his own bag he carried slung with a string over his shoulder.

Inside the purse he found a comb, a bottle of suntan lotion, some old bus stubs, some hair clips and the gold chain with monkey pendant wrapped in a small handkerchief. He threw the bag into the drainage stream that flowed by in the bushes, and he stalked away along the side of the hotel to the front where he walked down the road to the third bus-stop down and waited for the bus to carry him back down town.

There were only a handful of people getting on the bus and he hung back in the shadows beyond the edge of light of the bus stop. As the rear bus doors opened to let down a couple of passengers he quickly and quietly slipped up the steps first in front of the passengers and then sat down in the far backseat corner of the bus without the bus conductress, who was busy attending the people coming up, noticing. He pulled an old bus stub from the back of the seat in front of him where someone had stuck it.

When the conductress walked to the back of the bus she eyed him suspiciously and then asked him if he had yet paid his fair. He showed her the folded up stubs he had picked up that was stuck in the back of the seat and confidently looked her in the eye and told her yes, and she returned to the front of the bus where she sat down.

As the bus lumbered shakily down the road, he quietly eyed the passengers around him. He saw an old Chinese man with a cane and a young Indian mother with her small boy sitting next to her directly in front of him. Two young Malay men were sitting beside him and a couple of young Chinese girls were sitting in the seat just in front of the back door. He shifted away from the window toward the center of the seat where he could look up the aisle.

Two young white tourists were sitting near the front, and a couple of Indian women with their flower patterned Saris were sitting in the middle. One of these women had her billfold in her right hand sitting on the seat beside her next to the aisle. She was busy talking with the woman just in front of her and was not paying attention to what was going on around her on the bus. When the bus would jerk forward or brake or turn, she would let go of her billfold on the seat and hold onto the handle with her free hand.

As they got closer to town, a few more people had come up and the bus was beginning to fill. At one stop while a lot of people were coming down and others were coming up, he quickly shifted seats to the empty seat directly behind her that was just vacated by an old Muslim couple. He softly slapped the seat near the window and plopped down. The Indian woman in front of him was too busy to talking to even notice he was there.

At the next bus stop the bus jerked to a sudden stop next to a group of noisy school girls coming home late from school. Everyone had their eyes on the girls when the young man quickly and quietly slipped the Indian woman's billfold off her seat and into his open bag. Then he quietly got up and exited the back of the bus the way he came. He was the last person down and the bus lumbered off blowing off black smoke as he stepped on the pavement.

He quickly crossed the busy street in the middle of the traffic, having to wait in the middle of the lane for an opening before he could get completely across, and then he began walking quickly along the side of the road toward town. The bus was just four stops away from the main depot area at the shopping center, so he was fortunate that he didn't have very far to walk.

Along the way he ducked into a dark corner behind a building where there were only a couple of stray cats pawing in the trash. There he pulled out the billfold he found and opened it and took out the money and coins and then he threw the rest of the billfold into the trash pile and he walked back out to the main street. As he reached the second corner he noticed that just up the side road was the Pasar Malam. He turned up the road and walked into the lights of the market area.

Because it was still fairly early the market was pretty crowded. The hawkers were doing a brisk business. The noise of the music from the cassette seller was fairly loud. He noticed that a hawker selling shirts and underwear was busy with three Chinese women and had his back turned away from the other side of his table where some T-shirts were sitting folded neatly in rows. The Indian boy quickly opened his bag and grabbed two T-shirts from the edge of the table and slipped them into the bag, then he walked off again into the crowd.

He walked by a hawker selling fresh fruit next to the cassette seller that was crowded all around by a couple of Chinese families. He reached in behind a couple of kids and grabbed a couple of Sunkist oranges off the table and plopped them into his bag.

He walked further down and came to a gap along the side of the market where there was a tent set up selling clothes inside and where there was an alley-way leading to a back road in the row of shop houses on the side of the street. He stood there for a moment and then noticed an old Chinese woman walking alone with her handbag slung over her shoulder. She was wearing large gold earrings and a necklace and bracelets and a couple of rings on her fingers, and she was quite bent over and walked with a cane in her other hand.

As she slowly walked by him he quickly looked around and noticed that no one was looking that way. He quickly pulled a pocketknife out of his pocket and then with his other hand he grabbed the strap of her purse from behind and cut the strap. He was so swift and smooth in the motion of this action that she didn't even notice anything until after he pulled the bag with his free hand from behind her and her strap gave way. He quickly dodged into the darkness of the gap and into the alley of the shop houses, and he ran the length of the back road until he came to the main street from which he had originally turned up. There he stopped for a moment to catch his breath, without any people around. He emptied the purse directly into his now full bag and threw the purse into the corner of the back street. Then he crossed the road again and continued walking quickly to his final destination.

He laughed quietly to himself when thought about how strange it was that the lady didn't start screaming until he was already in the side alley, as he heard a couple of men shouting behind him, and how by the time he stopped it was completely quiet.

At last he came to the main boulevard where the shopping center was across the road. It was all lighted up and all kinds of people were shopping and ambling about.

He cross the boulevard in the middle of the road, just before the pedestrian crossing at the light, and he had to run to dodge a truck that honked it's horn at him.

When he got to the other side he sat for a moment to cool down and to rest for a minute. He watched all kinds of people walk by. There were groups of young girls and groups of young boys, young couples, older Chinese folks, Chinese and Malay families, rich looking white couples and a dingy looking young white man. A couple of the shopping center guards ambled slowly by and stared at him as they past. He looked at them and then looked the other way as if he didn't even notice them.

When they got out of his field of view around the corner of the building he reached into the bottom of his bag and put on his jacket and then he decided he'd better walk around and start from the other side. He walked around the outside of the complex and then went up the escalators to level number three. The inside of the mall was crowded with shoppers as there had been a holiday sale promotion at the department stores.

He zipped up the bottom of his jacket and slung his bag over his left shoulder. It was a fancy looking brown leather jacket, and with it on people didn't notice his dirty T-shirt or pants so much.

Inside the mall he walked carefully behind the throng of people as it slowly made its way down the main corridor. There was a promotion of gaudy costume jewelry going on with loud speakers playing music. A lot of young girls were there browsing on the shelves and all the sales girls were too busy with their customers to pay much attention to him as he grabbed an handful of fake gold jewelry off a shelf and slipped them quickly into his jacket. He zipped up his jacket a little more as he quietly exited the store. He made his way into the main department store on the other side of the mall and went up to the top floor. He enjoyed walking the floors on the different levels, and then coming down by the store escalator to the next floor.

He would act as if he were a customer shopping. It was a busy night and the store personnel in their blue uniforms were all so busy with customers or talking to one another by the cash register or bringing out more merchandise to arrange on the shelves. So they didn't notice when he slipped into his jacket a total of three new blank cassette tapes, some three way electrical plugs, an expensive set of women's underwear, and four pairs of black dress socks.

He didn't exit the store at the ground level where they sold groceries and most of the store security hung out around the entrances. He waited around the entranceway of the second level acting like he was interested in buying some new shoes until he noticed a group of Indian women leaving at the same time that a large Chinese family was entering. He got just behind the group of Indian women on the opposite side of the security guard at the door and quietly slipped through and then made an abrupt turn to the right and walked outside of the shopping mall where the outside stairs led down. He stopped to sit on the steps halfway down and when he saw that no one was coming up or down the steps he quickly opened his bag and put the contents of his jacket into his bag one thing at a time, taking stock of his booty.

His shopping bag (as he called it) was stuffed full and so he began quickly rearranging its contents without taking his hand or anything outside of the bag. Then he put the two oranges into the pockets of his jacket and slung the bag under his left arm without closing the bag. By this time a young Malay couple was ascending up the steps and got up and he walked down the steps. He noticed that the young man was pretty small and the girl was cute so he brushed against the girl on purpose as he descended the steps past them.

He waited under a tree at the bottom of the steps out of the light of the street lamps. He was watching a tourist couple who had a VCR and a camera bag taking video pictures of each other near the ground floor entrance of the mall. When they finished they walked out his way and sat under the bench under the tree next to his. As he was already sitting there and had a bag under his arm they did not notice him. The old white woman then got up and walked by a tourist promotion billboard and wanted her husband to take a picture of her there. The old white man in white shorts with hairy white legs got up from the bench with his VCR in hand and left the camera bag on the bench.

He moved fast in the shadows, grabbed the bag off the bench and then walked quickly toward the bridge around the back of a row of phones. The couple hadn't noticed the bag missing until he reached the busy one way road. He slung the whole camera bag over his left shoulder as if he were a tourist and hopped over the planter with the yellow marigolds. He waited a second for an opening in the traffic and then crossed against the cars, stepping between them as they veered to avoid him.

He walked down the main thoroughfare where the tourists always shopped. A lot of tourists and locals were out. He went down a few blocks, brushing against people along the way. He stopped and waited at a corner where he had just passed two young tourist men wearing shorts with loose pockets. They had their backs turned to him as he stood there and turned half the other way. He saw the tourist's wallet in his back pocket as he was looking at some leather bags and talking with the other man. He quickly pinched at the wallet with his forefinger and thumb, but just then the tourist began to turn around the other way. He withdrew his hand for a moment and waited. The tourist had noticed nothing. He turned back the other way and then the thief quickly pinched his wallet and stepped out across the street just behind a car and in front of a motorcycle making a turn. As he turned and walked across the road he quickly put the wallet inside his jacket. He walked quickly across the road and moved down to the next corner where he slipped a couple of caps off the table as he walked by when he saw the lady hawker trying to sell a hat to a young Japanese tourist couple.

He reached the intersection with the traffic light at the other end of the boulevard. He did not wait for the light to change but just stepped out into the road against the oncoming cars. A car honked at him and another car honked at the first as it's brakes screeched. He stopped and waited and then walked in the gap behind these cars. Then he stood in the middle of the road and waited for a couple of more cars to pass.

As he gained the other side he turned and walked up the dark side street where he always hung out, transferring the caps and wallet from his jacket to his now fat bag. There were no streetlights except on the corners, and there were a few alleys and clean

side walks along either side of the rows of shop houses. One of the rows of shop houses had been abandoned from a fire that occurred in one of them a year ago. He slept inside one of these abandoned shop houses. It was locked with a grill and padlock but he gained access by the back through the demolished shop house just next door.

Inside the backroom he had made himself a small bed with some cardboard boxes and newspapers he had scavenged. He had a small set of candles he would light and he hung his three bags with clothes on nails from the walls.

He would sleep here at night or during the day when he was tired. Or he would just wait hiding in the rubble next door for young drunk tourists to come staggering by in the middle of the night, that happened quite frequently as just up the road there were a couple of open air discos, and a few low priced tourist hotels.

He lit one of the candles with his plastic cigarette lighter. He had stolen the candles and the lighter at the same Chinese sundry shop just down the road. He lit two more candles and propped them up on a piece of wood. Then he sat down on his cardboard bed and opened up his bag with all his booty in it and dumped it all out on the ground, spreading it out before him and then taking the time to arrange it all very neatly. He looked inside the camera bag and there he found an old Nikon 35 mm SLR and two sets of lens with some lens cleaning equipment. He looked through the camera window as if he knew how to take a picture and acted like a professional photographer. The view window was very dim with only the candlelight.

He put the camera back in the bag and looked at the wallet.

There he found $138 dollars and a couple of U.S. traveler's checks. He took out the passport of the person and an American Express card. Inside the wallet was a couple of photos. One was of a young white woman in a two piece bathing suit standing by the beach. A lot of people were there, walking by or swimming in the waves. The girl in the picture was attractive. He pulled the picture out of its plastic pocket and stuck it in a crack on the board on the wall. He took out the other pictures and tore them all up.

He put the money into a pile on the floor underneath a rock. Then he looked at the passport and the card and wondered what he could do with them. He put them into another pile under another rock. Then he laid the wallet back down on the floor. It was fairly new and nice.

He pulled out the other things in his bag. The pairs of dress socks, the T-shirts, the caps, the electrical outlets, the cassettes, the things from the old woman's purse, which included a small change purse with 15 dollars inside, two bottles of medicine and a pair of glasses, and the things from the purse he stolen at the beach. He looked at the gold chain with the monkey pendant and figured he might get one or two hundred for it.

He didn't really know why he was such a successful thief. He had been doing it for only a couple of years now. He thought that it was perhaps because he had such a young face that everyone thought him innocent--he was only fifteen and on the short side for his age.

He decided to keep a couple of the T-shirts and one of the pairs of socks, a cap he liked and the hairbrush. These things he put into another bag that was hanging from a nail on the wall. The rest of the stuffed he carefully arranged back inside his carrying bag.

By the time he was finished the candles were getting low and flickering. One had already gone out. He felt tired and decided to rest because he wanted to get up early before the sun to carry his things to thieves' market.

He lay down and heard a rat scratching among the rafters overhead.

He awoke with a start when he heard the young drunk Australian singing and yelling and kicking things outside on the street. He got up fast and ran around to get a better look at the person. The young Australian was big and had a short haircut. He was staggering in the street and appeared to be angry. He could see that the Australian had a change bag slung around his waist. He began kicking the tires of a car parked along the street and then staggered back and fell over onto the ground. He sat there in the middle of the street ranting and raving. It was late and dark and no one was noticing him.

He quickly picked up loose brick from the ground and ran out into the street behind the Australian. He came up directly behind the Australian and clobbered him over the head with the brick. The Australian bent over holding his head and moaning. He quickly unzipped the change purse and took out a handful of cash and a wallet inside. Then he ran off into the shadows around the corner and made his way back to his room where he lit a burned down candle and counted the cash. He could hear the Australian still moaning and groaning outside. He counted 34 dollars. He opened the wallet and found another 100 dollars and the Australian's passport that he put with the other one. The wallet was old and so he flung it out the back door into the rubble. The drunk Australian outside started shouting again and cursing real loud, but soon he heard the voice get fainter as the Australian moved off down the street.

When he woke up again he could see that the sun was beginning to break on the horizon. He quickly jumped up and gathered his bag of things and made his way down the street along the back alleys. He came to area known as thieves' market. A few men had their things laying out on old blankets. He didn't have a blanket so he found a spot along the curb and laid his things out on the ground, including the camera, bag, lenses, the brush, the wallet and the gold chain, along with some things he had previously stolen but had not yet sold.

It was morning twilight and things were not yet very light. Just then a large black Mercedes-Benz drove slowly up the road. When it passed by the boy the driver slowed down and looked at his things. Then the driver backed up a little and pulled over to the side so that the view of the boy from the road was blocked by the car. The driver got out of the car and asked the boy what he wanted for the necklace, the wallet and the camera and equipment. The boy told him 500 dollars. The man said 100. The boy said 400. The man said 150. The boy said 350. The man said 200. The boy agreed. The man took some cash out of his pocket and counted out 200 dollars in 10 dollar bills. He gave it to the boy. The boy put the things into one of the old plastic bags he kept extra for that purpose. The driver got back into the car and drove off.

He didn't sell anything else that morning and after about an hour decided to put the things back into the bag and move off. Besides, he now had plenty of cash and was really feeling anxious to go find his dealer and buy some heroine. He walked in the cool air of the morning. The streets were not busy with cars yet and so he quickly made his way to an old shop house on the other side of town. Below was a coffee shop that was already full of people going to work at the office's nearby. He went inside and up the stairs and knocked on a door. The door cracked open a little and a face peered through and told him to go outside for a few minutes and wait until he was ready.

He went back down and waited beside the curb. While he was waiting he didn't notice three young Malay men dressed in plain-clothes walk up behind him. One of them offered to sell the boy some drugs and the boy agreed and took money out of his pocket. The other two then grabbed him from behind and twisted his arm behind and put handcuffs on him. They were so swift and quiet that hardly anybody inside the busy coffee shop noticed what happened. They led the boy down the street to a car waiting by the curb, and then they got into the car and the car drove off.

Blanket Copyright, Hugh M. Lewis, © 2005. Use of this text governed by fair use policy--permission to make copies of this text is granted for purposes of research and non-profit instruction only.