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I am not sure where this belongs, so I'll leave it to the mods - my best guess is that it might belong here.
This story dates back several years, I think I even was still at school - or just out of it.
Anyway.
Back then, there was a comic books shop I frequented quite regularly. I had become quite close with the three people working there, I spent whole afternoons and lots of money in it. It was the second shop opened by the same owner who, after his first shop had proven very successful in another university town, had tried to double his success. Such boss, who came from a certain quite remote country (fact that comes into play later), lived in the *other* town, and could be usually found in the *other* shop (in his hometown - quite obviously). He would drop by in the shop in my hometown quite randomly.
Anyway, one day I drop by at the shop. Late morning. I see a comic book I would have REALLY liked to have. Mind, the following day they were going to close for a couple of weeks for holidays (Christmas I think). Yes, those thing did happen once. I have no money, so I have a word with one of the guys who promises to hold on to it for me until mid-afternoon, not one minute more because it was a new release and highly on demand, blah-blah-blah. No problem anyway, I had money at home. On my way out, I meet a guy I vaguely knew from school. Greetings, surprise to find him there, chitchat.
I go back at the promised time, money in hand, get my comic book, start making my way out. A hand on my shoulder.
Now:
Me: me, probably not 18 yet
DA: the owner of the two bookstores
NP: one of the guys who run that store, the one I knew less well of the three
DA (hand on my shoulder. Pressing): "Where do you think you are going?"
Me (blushing): "What... do you mean? I paid for it, here it is... [NP], I paid, didn't I?"
NP (kinda shameful): "Yes, yes, [boss name], he paid for that one"
DA: "And what about the others?"
Me: "Which others?" (I turn to look at the guy I knew, who is clearly pretending he is busy with something else and looks seriously uncomfortable)
DA: "The ones that you helped your friend steal"
Me: "Which friend? What? I didn't steal anything"
DA: "Please open your rucksack, and stop looking for help, [NP] knows what I am talking about"
I oblige, both because I feel intimidated and because I have nothing to hide. And I guess that it is his right to ask, it being his shop and all. Anyway - he rifles through my school books, sports gear, what you would have in your rucksack at 16/17 in the afternoon of a schoolday in the middle of the winter. Nothing he can even suspect I took from his shop, anyway. Of course, this all happens in view of everybody. I guess he was trying to impress the other customers. Anyway.
DA: "...anyway, you'll have to help your friend repay for what the two of you stole this morning"
Me: "Wha... what?"
DA: "You know. He stole more than he could afford. [NP] caught him. Am I right?"
NP (shyly): "Yes, that guy did try to steal lots of stuff"
DA: "So, as you helped him steal, you help him pay too"
Me: "But... actually I didn't help him... [NP], I didn't steal anything, right?"
NP (still shyly): "Actually I don't know, I..."
DA: "He did, and he knows. But he knows we can't prove it either, so we'll let him go for this once. But I'll keep an eye on you, kid."
...at this point I walk out, followed by the angry stare of DA and with NP ostensibly turning the other way.
Well, the following day NP calls me at home (I had given my home number to another of the people working there) apologising for his boss's attitude and for his inability to stand up for me. He explained me that the boss had realised that there had been several small thefts in his shop (nothing huge, just kids stealing what they couldn't buy) and he had decided to put a stop to it. Unfortunately, he had started targeting all the regulars in the hope of catching some and not the casuals... and he had found NO thief. Except for that guy I had greeted that very morning.
Apologies appreciated, clearly he (who was very young at the time) was a bit afraid of his boss - and couldn't be 100% sure that I hadn't *really* stolen anything, I guess.
Anyway. I go back to the shop when it is supposed to re-open. And it is still closed. And this goes on, day after day, for weeks. Until I meet NP. Who tells me that...
Yes.
DA, the thief-catching boss, had fleed to his homeland with all the shops' money (and his employees' salaries for the last couple of months). The lawsuit filed against him by his employees had come to a dead end because he simply could not be found. At all.
Some months later all his properties in Italy were liquidated and the deriving money, after paying his bills, was split between all his employees. NP used it to buy all the comic books the two shops had and open his own shop, which is still thriving
This story dates back several years, I think I even was still at school - or just out of it.
Anyway.
Back then, there was a comic books shop I frequented quite regularly. I had become quite close with the three people working there, I spent whole afternoons and lots of money in it. It was the second shop opened by the same owner who, after his first shop had proven very successful in another university town, had tried to double his success. Such boss, who came from a certain quite remote country (fact that comes into play later), lived in the *other* town, and could be usually found in the *other* shop (in his hometown - quite obviously). He would drop by in the shop in my hometown quite randomly.
Anyway, one day I drop by at the shop. Late morning. I see a comic book I would have REALLY liked to have. Mind, the following day they were going to close for a couple of weeks for holidays (Christmas I think). Yes, those thing did happen once. I have no money, so I have a word with one of the guys who promises to hold on to it for me until mid-afternoon, not one minute more because it was a new release and highly on demand, blah-blah-blah. No problem anyway, I had money at home. On my way out, I meet a guy I vaguely knew from school. Greetings, surprise to find him there, chitchat.
I go back at the promised time, money in hand, get my comic book, start making my way out. A hand on my shoulder.
Now:
Me: me, probably not 18 yet
DA: the owner of the two bookstores
NP: one of the guys who run that store, the one I knew less well of the three
DA (hand on my shoulder. Pressing): "Where do you think you are going?"
Me (blushing): "What... do you mean? I paid for it, here it is... [NP], I paid, didn't I?"
NP (kinda shameful): "Yes, yes, [boss name], he paid for that one"
DA: "And what about the others?"
Me: "Which others?" (I turn to look at the guy I knew, who is clearly pretending he is busy with something else and looks seriously uncomfortable)
DA: "The ones that you helped your friend steal"
Me: "Which friend? What? I didn't steal anything"
DA: "Please open your rucksack, and stop looking for help, [NP] knows what I am talking about"
I oblige, both because I feel intimidated and because I have nothing to hide. And I guess that it is his right to ask, it being his shop and all. Anyway - he rifles through my school books, sports gear, what you would have in your rucksack at 16/17 in the afternoon of a schoolday in the middle of the winter. Nothing he can even suspect I took from his shop, anyway. Of course, this all happens in view of everybody. I guess he was trying to impress the other customers. Anyway.
DA: "...anyway, you'll have to help your friend repay for what the two of you stole this morning"
Me: "Wha... what?"
DA: "You know. He stole more than he could afford. [NP] caught him. Am I right?"
NP (shyly): "Yes, that guy did try to steal lots of stuff"
DA: "So, as you helped him steal, you help him pay too"
Me: "But... actually I didn't help him... [NP], I didn't steal anything, right?"
NP (still shyly): "Actually I don't know, I..."
DA: "He did, and he knows. But he knows we can't prove it either, so we'll let him go for this once. But I'll keep an eye on you, kid."
...at this point I walk out, followed by the angry stare of DA and with NP ostensibly turning the other way.
Well, the following day NP calls me at home (I had given my home number to another of the people working there) apologising for his boss's attitude and for his inability to stand up for me. He explained me that the boss had realised that there had been several small thefts in his shop (nothing huge, just kids stealing what they couldn't buy) and he had decided to put a stop to it. Unfortunately, he had started targeting all the regulars in the hope of catching some and not the casuals... and he had found NO thief. Except for that guy I had greeted that very morning.
Apologies appreciated, clearly he (who was very young at the time) was a bit afraid of his boss - and couldn't be 100% sure that I hadn't *really* stolen anything, I guess.
Anyway. I go back to the shop when it is supposed to re-open. And it is still closed. And this goes on, day after day, for weeks. Until I meet NP. Who tells me that...
Yes.
DA, the thief-catching boss, had fleed to his homeland with all the shops' money (and his employees' salaries for the last couple of months). The lawsuit filed against him by his employees had come to a dead end because he simply could not be found. At all.
Some months later all his properties in Italy were liquidated and the deriving money, after paying his bills, was split between all his employees. NP used it to buy all the comic books the two shops had and open his own shop, which is still thriving
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