It was the first day of our winter break. I was very keen to gather my friends at my house for a night’s stay. I persuaded my parents to grant me permission to call my four best friends, Maria, Alia, Sophia and Mishal.

I had long phone calls with each of my best friends to invite them over to my place and take permission from their parents. I prepared beds for my friends. My mother gave me three mattresses and I set them on one side of my bedroom and placed bedsheets on them. Two people could sleep on my bed comfortably, so this meant that the five of us could sleep well in my room. My mum gave me extra pillows and comforters too.

Soon my friends arrived, humming with happiness. They all had their toys with them. We all sat down on the mattresses on the floor and started colouring in our colouring books, because all of us love drawing and colouring. Then we played a lot of games till dinnertime. Later, we told stories to each other and fell asleep.

In the morning, we woke up early. My friends were getting ready for breakfast when I was shocked to find my moneybox empty. It had my savings, which were missing. I didn’t know who had stolen the money, as they were all my friends.

Alia’s behaviour made me suspicious of her. Her emerald green eyes travelled uneasily from one person to another when I questioned my friends about my missing money. From that unusual behaviour of hers, I understood that she was the culprit, but I decided not to disclose the secret as Alia was my best friend. However, I wanted justice.

Discreetly, I fixed my button camera on my cupboard doorknob, which faced my bed. I intentionally kept some money on the table beside my bed, as I wanted to find the real culprit. After lunch, I told my friends that we would take a nap since we were tired from playing. Alia came to sleep with me on the bed, while my other friends slept on the mattresses on the floor.

The afternoon passed as peacefully as the night before. After about a couple of hours, I got up and saw that my money had disappeared again. So now I asked my friends to go down for tea and that I will come a little after it. As they left, I checked what my camera had captured.

My doubts turned out to be true. The camera recording proved that I was right and Alia had stolen my money. I wished it wouldn’t have been the truth. After tea and some delicious snacks that my mother had prepared for us, we played badminton together. My heart was heavy carrying the dark secret and I wanted to disclose it only to tell Alia not to steal, not to embarrass her in front of everyone.

Just then an idea came to my mind. I insisted that Maria, Sophia and Mishal continued playing, while Alia and I go inside the house and bring some snacks to eat.

We walked inside. Then taking the opportunity, I revealed to Alia what I saw. She was shocked at first, but then she burst into tears. She apologised and told me that she wanted to buy some jewellery that she really liked and had no money, so she thought about stealing. She was a year younger than me. I instructed her to never steal anything. I told her that she should have asked me for some money, as this is what friends are for.

She understood, and returned my money repeating her apology. I accepted her apology and showed her my jewellery box, I asked her to pick anything she liked from it as a present from me. At first she refused, but I insisted and she took a bracelet. I told her that the bracelet she took is a present of friendship, but also a reminder of not stealing again. She agreed.

We continued to be together as best friends. This incident gave us a lesson that desires can lead us to doing things that we should not do, so we should always talk to our close friends and family members, they will surely have the best plan to help us out.

Published in Dawn, Young World, October 22nd, 2022