Story Contest 2016 #1 - Outstanding Stories » The Little Thief Learns a Lesson

“The Little Thief Learns a Lesson” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual Short Story Contest 2016 written by Leong Sheo Xuan, St. Angela’s School, Brunei Darussalam.

The Little Thief Learns a Lesson

Once there was a little boy called Adam, who came from a rich family. He was a lower primary student, and was very clever. He always scored good marks in his topical and assessment exams.

Adam got everything he wanted, such as toy cars, Nerf guns, water guns and so on. His parents bought him whatever he wanted, and Adam loved to add new items to his toy car collection.

One day he went out to the store with his mother and in the toys section he found a very cool new edition toy car which could play different kinds of sounds that a car would make. He was surprised to see that kind of toy car, so he ran to his mother and told her everything about it. Adam took his mother to the toys section to show how it worked. His mother refused to buy it for him because he already had a lot of toy cars. Adam was sad and wondered why his mother did not buy it for him, especially since that toy car was rather cheap.

Two weeks later, Adam and his mother went to the same store again. Adam thought that his mother would buy it for him this time. So he asked his mother about the toy car again. His mother ignored him because she was looking for something else. But Adam really wanted the toy car.

So, while his mother was busy looking for some other items, he took the toy car and put it inside his backpack. The salesman saw Adam stealing the toy car so he stopped Adam. Adam tried to run from the salesman but the salesman caught him. Adam started to cry and his mother heard his voice, so she ran to him. His mother was shocked to see the salesman holding Adam.

”What happened?” she asked, with concern. Then the salesman told Adam’s mother what he had done. His mother was very angry with Adam. She took the toy car and gave it back to the salesman. Then they went home. Adam’s mother scolded Adam and asked him why he did that. Adam admitted that he did that because he wanted the toy car desperately.

After that, Adam went to his room and regretted having done that. He started to think why he did that just for a toy car. He went to his parents and said sorry to them for stealing things in the store. His mother forgave him and told Adam to not do that again because it is not right to steal anything not yours.

Since then, Adam decided against wanting something so badly, because he realized that it would make him do things which were not right. He also learned what his mother was trying to teach him. Even though they had enough money to buy things, he had to find out whether he really needed a thing or just wanted it.