The Clever cooking pot
 

Long before there were ovens and microwaves, people used to cook over an open fire. Food would be put into a great big pot which would be heated in the flames. As you can imagine, the pot would become very dirty. It would be black and covered in soot from the fire. In this story we shall hear how a dirty cooking pot found a thief!

The story is set a long time ago in India, in a small village which was about to celebrate a festival. Everyone was very excited. They were going to enjoy feasting and dancing. Great fun for everyone.

But then came the dreadful news. There was a thief in the village. Someone was stealing things from the villagers' homes. That night the head man of the village gathered everyone round the fire. 'There is a thief among us,' he announced solemnly. 'And this cooking pot will find him!'
The head man held the cooking pot high in the air so the villagers could see it clearly in the light of the fire. 'This pot is covered in a magic soot,' he said. 'It will only mark the hands of the thief.'
 

The villagers were puzzled. It looked like an ordinary cooking pot. But they knew that their head man was very wise so they believed him. 'This is what you must do,' the head man continued. 'When the pot is passed to you, place your hand firmly on the side of it. If you are not the thief you have nothing to fear.'

Slowly and carefully, one by one, the villagers pressed their hands on the side of the blackened cooking pot. Eventually the pot was passed back to the head man. 'Has everyone done what I asked?' he said. 'Has anyone been missed?'

There was no reply.

'Very well then,' he said. 'Now we can find the thief'. The head man lit a torch from the fire and asked the villagers to walk past, one by one, with their palms open. They all did so, and the light of the torch showed that each of them had blackened hands. Were they all thieves? No one said a word.

The silence was broken by the head man. ' Look', he said. 'Here is the thief.'
Kneeling by the fire, quietly sobbing, was a young man, his hands still white and clean.

'I'm sorry,' he said. 'So very sorry.'

'How did you know he was the thief?' asked one of the villagers.
'The cooking pot told me,' smiled the head man. 'You all believed the story about the magic soot, and the thief was too frightened to touch the pot. He was the only one with clean hands!'

'Please forgive me,' said the thief. 'I promise I'll never steal anything, ever again.'
'And will you give back everything you took?' asked the head man.
'Everything,' promised the young man. 'I am so, so sorry.'

'Then we really do have something to celebrate,' said the head man.

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