The sandwich thief
Every lunchtime, Ravi put his lunchbox on the low wall near the bike racks. Every lunchtime, one half of his sandwich disappeared.
“Someone is taking my lunch,” Ravi told his friend Amina. “It is always the half with the cheese.”
Amina looked at the wall. She looked at the tree above the wall. Then she smiled.
“Tomorrow,” she said, “we will watch from the library window.”
The next day the two friends knelt at the window and waited. Ravi’s lunchbox sat on the wall in the sun. Nothing happened for a long time.
Then a grey bird with a black head landed on the wall. It tipped its head to one side, hopped twice, and lifted the lid with its beak.
“A currawong!” whispered Ravi.
The bird took the cheese half in its beak and flew up into the tree. Ravi laughed so loudly that the librarian looked up.
After that, Ravi kept his lunchbox in his bag. He still left one small crust on the wall, because the currawong had made him laugh, and that was worth a crust.