"The strange case of the thief of thieves" - Eva María Rodríguez

Once upon a time there was a city that was very dear to thieves, because they stole very well there. Villadespiste was called, to be exact.

The inhabitants of Villadespiste did not know anything. If something was missing, they replaced it. If they couldn't find one thing, they would do it again or buy something else.

Even the police were confused there. Only once in a while did they find out about robberies, but usually they didn't catch the thief. They had to give each other away so that one of them could get a cut, since after so much stealing there was almost nothing left to steal from the people.

And so, the Villadespiste prison was filled with thieves. There were so many that they had to set up a new prison. The problem is that the judge was also so clueless that when he didn't forget to go to trial he got involved with the charges and sentences.

But one day the thieves began to disappear. At first no one noticed, except the thieves themselves, who remained silent waiting for someone to come for them. Those incarcerated called him "the thief of thieves."

"I can't wait for it to be my turn," they said to each other, softly, not being that the policemen had a moment of lucidity and found out what was happening.

Gradually the jail emptied. But nobody gave it importance, because they were so clueless that they thought they had missed something.

-Have you noticed that no one has stolen anything again? a policeman asked.

"That's true," said another. They will have learned their lesson.

At that time a new chief of police arrived in the city. Seeing a city without criminals, he assumed that it was a great destination.

-I will be able to retire in peace- thought the new chief of police.

But days later the robberies returned and the denunciations of some thieves to others. So, once again, the jail filled up again. And again the thief of thieves was taking them out of there.

"Something strange is happening here," said the chief of police, who was still assimilating the passivity of those people.

"The judge must have released them," said one of the policemen.

"But the judge hasn't done anything yet!" exclaimed the chief of police.

The good man decided to take action and went out into the street, dressed in civilian clothes. The first few days he didn't see anything out of the ordinary. But it wasn't long before he began to see various thieves brazenly stealing handbags, purses, shopping bags and even candies and sweets from children.

-But what is this? the chief of police thought.

He put the agents to work and within days the jail was full again.

Nobody but the chief of police realized, the next day, that a criminal was missing. And the next day, another one. And so, little by little, they disappeared.

The chief of police decided to spy at night, without anyone seeing him. That was very easy, because nobody there found out anything and those who did find out, who were the thieves, were not used to someone paying attention to what was happening.

He discovered it the first night. Hidden in the shadows, a hooded person, you couldn't tell if he was a man or a woman, he took one or two thieves out of the cell without making a sound.

-I catch you! said the police chief, emerging from his hiding place. Hands up! You are stopped!

The police chief unmasked the thief of thieves. He was the very judge!

-What's happening here? said the chief of police. But the police chief was so confused that he fell flat on the ground.

When he woke up, he did not remember anything. A few hours later a young man appeared

"It's my father," he said. He has a rare disease and from time to time he turns into another person and does strange things. Then he doesn't remember anything.

From then on, the criminals of Villadespiste did not get off scot-free again and, thanks to the chief of police, the robberies almost completely stopped.

The thieves wait patiently for the chief of police to retire. We'll see what happens next.