The Cleverest Thief

When the head of a Buddhist monastery decides to pick a successor, he sends the young monks out to accomplish one task. The Cleverest Thief is a timeless folktale from India, retold by T. V. Padma, which takes place in a Buddhist monastery. In the story, the head of the monastery falls ill and must choose a successor. To do so, he sends out the young monks and instructs them to steal something, but they must steal it in such a way that no one will know that they have stolen it. The young monks don’t question their leader. In the end, only one monk learns the truth of the saying, “To thine own self be true.” This Buddhist story will teach readers the importance of responsibility, trustworthiness and resourcefulness. Padma Venkatraman is a writer and a scientist who lives south of Providence, Rhode Island. She is the author of Growing Gold (A folktale from India also in the Story Cove series), Mathematwist (a collection of mathematical folktales), and Climbing the Stairs (a young adult novel published by Penguin).