The Phone Thief

3. The Deal

Later in the evening, Abubakar tried calling Adam several times, the response was always "not reachable".
Abubakar sensed that something must be wrong. And that was when he realized he made the mistake of not collecting Adam's address. Abubakar liked Adam because of his sincerity and his smartness, plus the fact that the boy's appearance, calmness and presentation are all intriguing.

There was a burning hope in Abubakar to see Adam again, to engage him in conversations that will unfold the mystery in behind the boy's lifestyle. He also wanted to know when and how the boy took his phone and Umar's earpiece as they chat in the room.

So is it with Umar. The boy has thought them lessons and that's just within an hour, how about if they spend 10 hours with him. His story must be interesting. The question they kept asking themselves were where are his parents? How does he take care of his sister? How is it that he's been stealing for over a decade and never get caught?....and many more.

The following day, both Abubakar and Umar sat outside with the hope they'll see Adam coming. His number was still not reachable. They agreed he'll be there by 2:00pm and when 4:00pm reached, they gave up. They went to a nearby mosque to pray. After the prayer, Umar and Abubakar went to their houses.

Just outside his room, Abubakar saw a shoe. Who could be in his room?

Abubakar opened the door slowly, only to see Adam praying on a praying mat. He was stunned. How did he entered the house and even his room? For how long had he been there?

When Adam finished praying, he looked at Abubakar straight in the face. His face was expressionless though. He extended his hands to Abubakar and said "assalamu alaikum."

Abubakar accepted and answered "wa'alaikassalam, how did you enter this room and since when have you been here?"

"Oh please, Abubakar you ask too many questions. How is it you don't fathom the obvious. I took your keys yesterday."

"No you didn't, see my keys" Abubakar produced they keys from his pocket.

"I saw a bunch of identical keys on the cupboard yesterday and they must be spares so I took them. Have them" Adam gave Abubakar his keys. Abubakar was amazed and angry at the same time.

"Please don't ever play such kind of stunt on me again. And I don't even know why the guard man let you in"

"Out of the N4000 that your friend gave me, I gave him N500 on my way out yesterday. Never underestimate the power of first impression." Adam retorted.

"Please don't steal anything in this room again. And how did you took my phone and Umar's earpiece yesterday?...and my cufflinks?"

"So am I here for a questions and answers session? Well...let me answer that question first, let me educate you Abubakar. Stealing is an art. It could have been a very profitable and enjoyable profession but it's a sin, isn't it? you see, as an intellectual thief, before I steal something, I'll have to study the environment first, weigh my chances of being caught and the consequences that might ensue, then I'll have to make escape plans, plan A, plan B and plan C." Adam then stopped talking so he could study Abubakar and see how interested he is.

"Why did you stop, continue." Abubakar plead.

"After deciding on escape plans, I then study my victim. I don't like the word victim actually, so I will refer to our lovely and generous victims as clients because they are inversely benefiting from our service." Adam spoke as if he was making a presentation.

"What service are you talking about?" Abubakar asked.

"Stealing, stealing is the service" Adam said.

"Okay continue."

"So I study my clients. I will classify his or her orientation. I will see how attentive they are to their environment and see if they are sensitive to little changes around them. You know, your attention is being determined by an interplay between your conscious and your subconscious mind. Depending on what I want to steal and how close or far it is from a client, I will alter either of the minds - either the subconscious or the conscious. Then I will take the thing...sometimes, I will leave an assignment for the client to do, you know, like - I will make him busy thinking about something to buy me time to vamoose. It all depends on the commodity I'm borrowing though"

"Borrowing or stealing?" Abubakar asked.

"Borrowing, aren't we gonna pay back on judgment day?" Adam asked.

"So you know that you'll return it. Em... okay, that conscious and subconscious mind....explain."

"Okay, I believe you know how to drive a car very well. When you want to go somewhere, you enter the car, close the door, start the engine, match on the clutch, engage the gear, then you take your leg slowly, away from the clutch as you simultaneously press on the accelerator. You use your hand to steer the car and at instances, you change the gear. Now your conscious and subconscious minds share these activities. Your conscious mind focuses on the road and your subconscious take care of the gear engagement, the matching and releasing of the clutch, accelerator and steering. That's why you wouldn't know when you did all of those because the subconscious is in charge. But if you're a learner, you're conscious of everything, you may look at the gear before you change and you're always wary of your legs position right? That's why you'll find it difficult to drive smoothly until you learn to give some tasks to your subconscious."

"So which one did you alter before stealing my phone and the earpiece." Abubakar asked.

"Both, actually, that going to the toilet was a stunt, so was the step that I missed and nearly fell. And also when I got frustrated and decided to leave. I stole them during those moments. If everyone creates and uses opportunities like thieves, poverty would have been a matter of less importance, don't you have something for me to eat? Like snacks or chicken pepper soup, since you people are rich."

"Who told you we're rich?" Abubakar asked.

"Oh come on please. Everything about the rich is different, including the smell of the oxygen in your houses." Adam closed his eyes and sniffed.

"You're funny." Abubakar retorted. "People judge without being considerate sometimes. The last time I had up to 10k was almost two weeks ago."

"If you want 10k I will give you and you pay me back whenever you get it." Adam said, staring at Abubakar.

"So you stole something again?" Abubakar asked.

"No I didn't." Adam swore.

Abubakar was silent for a moment, then he said "But as of yesterday you had nothing, we even had to buy food for you. Then how did you get the money today?"

"Well..well...well. Okay. Let me spill the beans. But am telling you because I realized that you were honest when you said you will do the best you can to help me. I saw it in your eyes and after all, you are a good man. I want to be like you when I grow up." Adam looked at Abubakar and they both smiled. "Well, you see Abubakar, I may not be a thief after all."

"How?" Abubakar asked.

Adam started contemplating whether to tell Abubakar or not. Then he said "you see, when I stole your phone,it wasn't the phone that I was after. It was the four thousand naira that Umar gave me that I was after. That's what I do. I will steal something valuable....phone or documents. Then I will locate and return it to the owner the following day. I will act in a way that he'll pity me plus you know, he's already happy that his phone or documents are back. He'll definitely be empathetic. I usually leave with some thousands. Most of them give me some money. I have hundreds of thousands now." Adam laughed "Are you ready to listen to my story?"

Abubakar was stunned...was he even breathing?

........
The Deal

Let's go on...