Chapter 13

The Camel and the Thief

Now I shall tell you a story about a camel and a thief. It is a true story, and happened many, many years ago. The story shows what we can learn by watching the animals.

Once upon a time, a traveler was going on foot across the country. In his belt he had a purse full of money. One day, as the sun began to get hot, he lay down on the grass under a tree near the roadway, and fell asleep.

After a few hours he woke up, and what was his surprise to find that the purse was gone! While he was asleep, somebody had quietly stolen his purse and gone away.

The traveler ran to the nearest village, and there told the police about it. Now, among the police there was a very clever man, and the police brought him with them to the place where the money had been stolen. The clever man looked all around the place very carefully to see if he could find any marks on the ground. On the grass near the tree he found no marks; in fact, if a person walks on the grass just once or twice it does not leave any mark. But on the roadway near by he found footprints.

"They are a camel's footprints," he said, looking at the marks carefully. "And the marks of all the four feet are not quite the same. Three of them are quite deep and clear; but the fourth one is very faint."

He followed the camel's footprints along the road for a long time. But now and again he stopped and looked at the shrubs and bushes which grew here and there, on both sides of the road.

"Hello, that is strange!" he suddenly said. "The camel has eaten from the bushes and shrubs here and there on the left side of the road, but he hasn't eaten at all from those on the right side of the road."

He went on for some time longer, then suddenly stopped to look at the road where the camel had walked.

"Hello, this is also strange!" he said. "Here are a lot of _bees_ buzzing near the ground on the _right_ side of the road. And here are a lot of _ants_ scrambling over the ground on the _left_ side of the road."

"Never mind about the camel, and the bees and the ants," the policemen said impatiently. "We want to know about the thief who stole the money. You have not found any other footprints except the camel's?"

"That is quite true," the clever man said. "But as the _camel_ could not steal the money, there must be a _man_ riding on the camel. He must be the thief."

"But why didn't the thief leave any footprints?" the policemen asked.

"Because he must have ridden his camel from the roadway right to the edge of the grass," the clever man answered. "Then he must have jumped down upon the grass, where he knew he would not leave any footprint. He must have walked very quietly on the grass up to the tree where the traveler was sleeping, and stolen the money. Then he must have walked back quietly to the camel and ridden off."

"But what sort of a man is the thief?" the police asked. "How can we find him, if you do not tell us what he is like?"

"I cannot tell you a thing about the thief, or what he looks like, as he hasn't even left a footprint," the clever man answered. "But I can tell you _all about the camel_. The camel is _blind_ in his _right eye_, and _lame_ in his _left hind foot_. And on his back he is carrying two packages, one on each side; the package on the _right_ side has _honey_ in it, and the package on the _left_ side has _corn_ in it. So you must search for a man who is riding a camel loaded like that. He is the thief."

So the police searched for a man who was riding a camel which was blind in his right eye, lame in his left hind foot, and carrying honey in a package on his right side, and corn in a package on his left side. After following the camel's footprints on the ground for a long time, the police at last came to a village.

They searched through the village, and found many men riding camels. But there was only one man riding a camel blind in his right eye, lame in left hind foot, and carrying honey on the right side, and corn on the left side. So the police knew that he was the thief, and took him before the judge. Then the thief said that it was quite true that he stole the money.

Afterwards the judge turned to the clever man and asked him how he knew all that about the camel.

"You didn't _see_ the camel at all, but only his footprints," the judge said. "Then how did you know that the camel was blind in his right eye, lame in his left hind foot, and carrying honey on the right side, and corn on the left side?"

"It was quite simple," the clever man answered very modestly. "First, about the camel being blind in his right eye. He had nibbled at the shrubs and bushes growing on the left side of the road, for at each bite I found the leaves cut off clean by his teeth. On the right side of the road there were also plenty of good shrubs and bushes, but the camel had not taken a single bite at any of them. That showed that he did not even _see_ those shrubs and bushes on his right side. And that of course meant that his right eye was blind."

"That is very clever of you," the judge said. "But how did you know that the camel was lame in his left hind foot?"

"That was just as simple," the clever man again answered very modestly. "As the camel walked along, the marks of his two front feet and right hind foot were quite deep and clear on the ground. But the mark of his left hind foot was very faint. That showed that the camel was limping, and the left hind foot only just touched the ground. So I knew that he was lame in that foot."

"That is also very clever of you," the judge said. "But how did you know that the camel was carrying honey on his right side, and corn on his left?"

"That was the simplest of all," the clever man answered most modestly. "As the camel was limping, nearly every step he took jerked the load on his back. So a few drops of the honey fell to the ground from the package on his right side, and a few grains of the corn fell to the ground from the package on his left side."

"But you could not see very well here and there on the ground just a few drops of honey or just a few grains of corn?" the judge said.

"_I_ could not," the clever man answered, "but the _bees_ and the _ants_ could! On the right side of the road I found a swarm of bees here and there; so I knew that they were trying to pick up the honey. And on the left side of the road I saw a whole lot of ants here and there; so I knew that they were trying to pick up and carry away the grains of corn."

Now was it not really clever of that man to find all that out about the camel, without ever seeing the camel before? But, as you understand, he knew all about the _habits_ of different animals; and so he knew what camels and bees and ants always do.