An amateur's guide to conning a conman

Chapter 1

I knew, by the way, the men were watching the young girl, they only had one thing on their mind. They wanted the shiny gold bangles on her wrist. She must have been a foreigner, a princess growing up in her family's rich estate without a care in the world to be wearing that much gold, especially unprotected in Xia.

I sat on her small mat, an array of fresh fruits and vegetables laid out, ready to be sold and bagged. I was always careful to keep her eye on everyone at all times and even more careful to be conscious of my tiny pouch of gold hidden at the waistline of my trousers. Xia was a scary city and it was far too easy to be conned.

" Miss, three tomatoes please." The man stood in front of me, obstructing my view of the naive girl.

I quickly smiled and bagged the items he requested. I didn't like the way, the man was anxiously staring at the small bags of fruit by my left.

" Five pines please."

The man paid me and I tuck the coins beneath my thigh, I would put them in my pouch later. What the man didn't notice was with my free hand I carefully reached for the wooden stick behind me.

As soon as I handed the man his groceries, the con started. He bowed to me and at lightning-fast speed, reached down, grabbed two bags of fruit, and took off.

I jumped up and readied myself, as soon as I stepped off the mat. A figure jumped in to take my spot.

I swung my staff, the thief cried out as he crumbled to the ground.

The classic distracts and steal. By now the commotion had drawn the attention of other merchants and customers but they stayed where they were. No one could be certain that this wasn't just another rouse to steal more goods.

I pulled the boy to his feet, he couldn't have been older than I was and narrowed my eyes.

" You call your friend right now and tell him to return my goods or I can continue beating you. Your choice."

The boy nodded quickly and reached for his phone in his pocket.

It took twenty minutes for the other man to return. And in those twenty minutes, I made the boy kneel in punishment. I almost felt sorry for him, almost.

The man was sheepish as he handed over my goods and bowed in apology, begging me to not alert the guards. I told him I wouldn't if they paid me 50 pines.

His face fell but forked over the small bag of coins. The man took the boy, angrily muttering as they left.

I transfer the four pines into the bag and stuff the bag up my sleeve.

" Oh my god, Sia," Jack said as he leaned against a stall. " Damn you just made a two days wage in half an hour."

Jack Krill, one of my closest friends and fellow merchant. He was a handsome fellow, all lean muscle and dark eyes, with a killer smile bright enough to stun the rudest of customers.

He was also probably the only merchant in the city brave enough to abandon his post but of course, Jack had a way with knives that not even the strongest willed of thieves would dare take a piece of bread off his stall.

" Why alert guards who will do nothing when you can blackmail a thief?"

He laughed, " Care to split your profits?"

I rolled her eyes, " If I split my profits with you again, then you'll have to owe me fifteen oat pastries on top of the two hundred you still owe me." But I opened the pouch and dropped a handful of coins in his palm.

Jack needed the money more than I did. He had three siblings to take care of and I was an orphan, a street rat since I was ten. Although I preferred the term independent youth. But Jack and his siblings might as well be orphans themselves. Their parents were gone ten months out of the year.