That night, while the adults argued about what to do, we the children made our own plan.
The grown-ups always said, "Stay out of trouble."
But we were tired of hearing that.
If the adults couldn't catch the thief, we would.
It was Goru who said it first, sitting by the fire with a stick in his mouth.
"If they won't stop whoever's stealing the rice… we will."
Jack's eyes lit up.
"Then we'll be heroes again! The Rice Heroes!"
Twilight rolled her eyes.
"You just want to be called that because you like the sound of it."
Everyone laughed even Anna, who had her hands on her knees, grinning.
I was sitting beside her, not really understanding everything, but nodding anyway.
That night, our laughter felt like the only thing still pure in the whole village.
The Plan
We called it Catch the Rice Thief our masterpiece.
The plan wasn't perfect, but to us, it was genius.
Goru drew lines in the dirt, pretending to be the commander.
"Jack and I will watch the left side of the farm. Twilight and Edwin, take the right. Erin and Anna, you'll stay behind the baskets."
Jack puffed his chest.
"And when we see the thief, we jump out and shout 'GOT YOU!'"
Anna giggled.
"What if it's just a cat?"
Jack froze, scratching his head.
"Then… we catch the cat too!"
Everyone burst out laughing.
Even Goru tried to stay serious but couldn't help smiling.
The stars above the rice field glowed like scattered lanterns.
It was late too late for children to be outside but none of us wanted to go home.
The Traps
We built our traps with what we had:
old baskets, ropes, and sticky rice paste.
Twilight's idea was to make the ground slippery near the rice barn.
"If someone steps there," she said proudly, "they'll fall right on their back!"
Edwin tied ropes between the baskets.
Jack filled one with muddy water "just in case."
It was chaos loud, messy, and full of laughter but it felt like a real mission.
Goru checked each trap like a leader inspecting soldiers.
"Good work," he said, crossing his arms.
"Tonight, we defend Fernstead."
I didn't say anything. I just sat close to Anna, watching the fireflies blink around the rice fields, glowing like tiny spirits.
For a moment, it felt like magic the kind of magic that only children can make from courage and foolishness.
The Night Watch
As the moon rose high, we hid behind the rice baskets.
The fields were quiet, the only sound was the crickets singing.
Even Jack stayed still, his belly growling softly in the silence.
Then we heard it
a soft crunch, like footsteps.
Someone or something was walking between the rice rows.
Goru raised his hand, signaling everyone to stay low.
Jack whispered,
> "It's the thief."
We could see a shadow small, crouched, moving carefully toward the storage hut.
It was too dark to see the face.
Goru waited.
Then shouted
"NOW!"
Everyone jumped out.
Jack tripped on his own rope, Twilight fell into the mud, Edwin screamed, and I started crying from the noise.
Anna grabbed my hand and pulled me back as the figure turned and tried to run
only to step right into the slippery rice paste Twilight made.
Thud!
The figure fell flat.
We surrounded it, hearts pounding.
The Caught Thief
When the moonlight touched the thief's face, everyone gasped.
It wasn't a stranger.
It was Old Leno, the man who lived near the forest edge quiet, gentle, always smiling.
He looked at us, his face pale and tired.
> "Children…" he said softly, "you shouldn't be here."
Goru didn't move.
"You… you were the thief?"
The man sighed and sat up slowly.
His clothes were torn, his hands shaking.
"I was hungry," he whispered. "My wife is sick. I took only enough to feed her."
The field went silent.
Even Jack, who was always quick to talk, said nothing.
We all stood there, our brave mission suddenly feeling very small.
Then Anna walked up to him and placed a small rice ball in his hand the one she had hidden for herself earlier.
She smiled gently, her silver hair glowing under the moonlight.
"You don't have to steal," she said. "We can share."
For a long time, no one spoke.
The wind passed through the rice like a whisper.
That night, we didn't tell the adults what happened.
We only knew one thing
sometimes people don't steal because they're bad.
Sometimes they steal because they're alone.