Two Friends Two Thieves(For Children) Poem by Indira Renganathan

They were two thieves in thick friendship
Stole from small hamlets and towns and
Never they stole from big cities..
Reason known to themselves only
Their choice now was a town nearby
With all tools and sacks they started
A short travelling by bus and
They reached their planned destination

Ere they were into that small town
Paused under a tamarind tree
To talk on their set plans to thieve
They did and then had a short nap
No sooner they relaxed reposed
than suddenlyheard a scream
'There's a ghost up that tree..! ! '
Shocked though the friends said 'no, not scared'

That was a passerby who warned
With that they walked to the township
Their time it was to know a lot
Inquiring about who were rich
Who were absent and who were lone..
Their pretext of seeking a job..
Day spent on to end in a theft
Of a sumptuous plundering

Two big sacks stuffed with the robbed goods
Were dragged to that ghost-tree midnight
The thieves thought that was the safe place
As people were scared of that ghost
Without delay they climbed up fast
The sacks werehidden perfectly
Amid the dense growth of that tree
So that none could spot their treasure

Morn rose from bad blows of a night
People were upset and much shocked
To find the thieves police got set
Enquiries like missiles thrown on
At last to suspect the two friends
Next day's nightly darkness, cops stood
Around that tree of ghost-abode
Hiding unnoticed in mufti

After a day through wandering
At the moonless dark night's onset
The two thieves rushed to the ghost-tree
For their robbed goods up the tree top
With all bags as they hastened down
An eerie cry of wailing ghosts
A sudden cry of ghostly howls...
God! ! threatened the two thieves badly

In a dreadful trepidation
The friends jumped down trying to escape
But not to let them flee out came
Like lightning the cops in mufti
Caught red-handed the best two friends
Arrested and imprisoned them
People of that town believed thence
'Sometimes ghosts too help to catch thieves'