A Thief's Prize

Sipping on some lukewarm hot chocolate, Percy started going through his earnings for the day. He rummaged in his many pockets and removed all contents within. Percy had managed to obtain: four wallets, two high-quality phones, an expensive-looking ring, and a lighter. There had been no real need to take the lighter, but it had been so casually left on a table that it felt rude not to take it.

Going through the wallets Percy managed to make forty-three Dollars and fifty cents. Not great. He’d have to work extra hard tomorrow. Other than a coupon for a two for one at a milkshake store, the rest of the wallets had no value to Percy in the slightest. He would be sure to throw them away the second he could.

A waitress walked past carrying a pot of coffee. By the time she looked over at his table all of Percy’s earnings had been swiftly placed back into his pockets. After so many years of living on the streets, he’d become skilled at sleight of hand, and it had done him well.

Percy followed the waitress with his eyes making sure that she wouldn’t loop back around. She went over to refill the cups of three beautiful women one with blonde hair and the other two with black, a well-built burly man with a harsh looking face also sat in the booth. Next to him in the corner where several duffle bags that seemed almost empty. It was safe for Percy to continue inspecting his possessions, but he was entranced by the women and couldn’t help but listen in to their conversation with the man.

“I’m telling you, it’s a magic book. Never in all my life have I seen something like it.” The man spoke in a surprisingly light and friendly tone.

“Come on Hadley none of us believe you. You're just saying that to sound interesting.” The blonde-haired women said.

“Fine. Fair enough, it’s hard to believe. How bout’ I prove it to you.”

Percy could hear one of the other girls’ sigh. “Sure, knock yourself out. It’s not like we’ve got places to be.”

Curiosity getting the better of him, Percy turned to have a better look at this magic book. Hadley pulled from the pocket of his leather jacket, a little black book. At first glance, it didn’t seem like anything special, but Percy was curious to see where the conversation went.

“Look it’s filled with all these different tasks that I can do, small things like helping someone cross the street. Once I've done the thing, I open the book and cross out the task. After it's been crossed out, I get some kind of reward that just magically comes to me. Like, for example, this one - it says to break a cup. Watch.”

Percy watched along with the women as Hadley moved his cup of hot coffee to the side of the table and let it drop onto the floor smashing instantly. The waitress came hurrying over to clean up the mess. All three of Hadley's friends were shocked by what he had done.

“I am so sorry miss, my friends a complete idiot.”

“Yeah, as stupid as they come”

“We’ll make sure to give a large tip.”

All three women offered weak smiles to the waitress. Throughout this Hadley just sat there with a smug look on his face as he crossed the task from the black book. Percy thought that Hadley needed to rethink using some stupid magic book to impress women. As when the waitress left, they all glared at him.

“I know, I know, that wasn’t cool. But look at that there’s my reward.”

Hadley was pointing down at the floor. Percy followed the man's finger and by some miracle on the floor was a stack of cash.

That had to be at least a hundred dollars, Percy thought.

“What? I don’t understand how did that happen?” The blonde-haired women asked.

“I told you it’s a magic book. It’s gonna make me rich.” said Hadley as he counted his money.

Percy had no idea if this was real. If this little book actually had some kind of magical powers. All he knew was that if it did, he was going to be rich from it. Not this stupid man who thought it was a good idea to flaunt about it in public where anyone with a bit of skill could take it from him.

Leaving his now cold drink behind, Percy started to walk towards the booth. As Hadley showed off his money to the women, Percy easily stole the black book that had been left on the side of the table. If Hadley was so careless with the book, he didn’t deserve it. On his way out of the Diner, Percy could hear the group trying desperately to find the book that was their ticket to fortune. Now Percy’s fortune.

After Percy had left the area, he took out the book and looked inside. Annoyingly the majority of the tasks had already been done. In fact, there were only four things left that he could do. One was to slash a car's tire, another to graffiti a wall with a little black book, the next was to wear a police officer’s hat, and the last was to cause a blackout. These tasks were all a lot more challenging than simply breaking a cup, but then Percy assumed it would mean the rewards would be so much greater.

Not wanting to waste any time he set off to see if doing one of the tasks would truly give him money. The task Percy chose to do first was to wear a policeman’s hat. Percy was more than confident that he could get away with it without anyone noticing him.

Walking around the town for a while Percy finally managed to find a cop car stationed outside the local bank. They were probably withdrawing money so that they could buy more doughnuts Percy thought, sniggering to himself. Inside the car were two hats. Thankfully, these cops weren’t careful enough to lock their doors and Percy was easily able to reach in and grab what he needed.

He took out the little black book with the hat on his head and crossed out the task. There was a part of Percy that knew what he was doing was stupid. There was no such thing as magic. It wasn’t possible for money to appear out of thin air, and he was soon going to look like an idiot when the cops walked out of the bank. Although, even in his doubt, Percy looked around to see if any money had appeared, and somehow on the floor by the boot of the car was a fat stack of cash.

Percy quickly counted it and realised that he was holding three thousand dollars. That was more than he had ever held in his life. Excitement and adrenaline started to pump through his body, as he had another look at the other tasks he could complete. Slash a tire he read. Well, he was next to a car at this moment, why should he care if it was a cop car. What good had they ever done him?

Greedily wanting more money, Percy took out his switchblade from one of his pockets and plunged it into the tire. He could hear the air hissing as it escaped from its rubber prison. However, before Percy was able to cross the tasks from the book, he heard someone shouting.

"OI! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING!”

Percy looked over to the front of the bank and saw two police officers running towards him. Instead of being scared Percy simply took off the hat he was still wearing threw it on the floor, gave a nasty smile to the cops running towards him, and sprinted away.

His heart was pounding with anticipation as he made his way into an alley and crossed the task from the black book. Sure enough, a few moments later he found seven thousand dollars waiting on the floor just outside the alleyway. Now he was up ten thousand dollars.

Even with his new wealth Percy still decided to steal a can of black spray paint, from a local store instead of purchasing it. Not long after he was happily defacing the side of a building with a picture of his new best friend. Once more he crossed his tasks from the black book and was overwhelmed to find ten thousand dollars waiting for him on a bench close by.

Percy now had twenty thousand dollars. It was more than enough for him to survive for the next year, but he greedily wanted even more money. Now there was only one more thing to do. Cause a blackout. Percy remembered seeing workers fix some kind of electrical wires close by to the bank when he completed his first task. He was sure that if he threw some water onto the cables, he was sure to cause a blackout.

After a bit of work, Percy had managed to fill a plastic tub with around a gallon of water. It was sure to be enough. He could see the bank in the distance. The police car had gone, presumably towed away to get fixed. There was nobody around to stop him. Percy looked down into the pit, it was filled with opened cables and wires exposing the copper and metals within.

If Percy’s eyes weren’t so polluted with greed, he might have thought about standing far away from the live wires as he chucked the water into the pit. As soon as the water touched the exposed wires a massive explosion sent Percy flying back into the road.

Somehow, he had no major injuries and was only dazed by the force of hitting the ground. Nobody else had been around to get hurt but there was rubble all in the road and Percy could hear noises from concerned and scared citizens in the distance.

Although, now that Percy had regained some more focus, he realised that most of the noises were coming from within the bank. He looked over just as four masked people came running out with duffle bags filled with what must have been cash. They got into a car parked on the other side of the road which had been unaffected by the explosion and started to drive towards Percy.

After pulling up next to Percy, the driver removed their mask revealing that he was Hadley the previous owner of the little black book. He gave a pearly white grin to Percy and said, “Thanks for all your help thief.”

Then without another word, Hadley drove off into the distance laughing along with his accomplices, and Percy was left to feel like a fool knowing that he wouldn’t be getting any more rewards from his magic book.

A few days later a new broadcast aired:

Good evening viewers, it would appear as though the black book robbers have struck again at a local bank, stealing almost half a million dollars. None of the main four have been caught yet but a homeless teenage boy has been arrested for aiding with the robbery. CCTV footage shows the young man helping to distract police officers that had been stationed outside the bank, and had caused an explosion whilst the robbery was taking place to allow the black book robbers a clean getaway. The footage also shows the robbers paying the homeless teen money every time he completed a crime. Policemen even found the robbers calling card, a little black book, on the personnel of the teen. He is expected to spend at least 7 years in prison for his actions. It just goes to show that no matter how much you get paid to do something evil, eventually, your luck will run out and you’ll have to pay for the things you’ve done.