Tale 165 told by Bishop on 03.08.2002
New Trickery

I was suspicious of the quiet man in the back booth of 
the bar.  He seemed too quiet, as if he was stealing 
from under my nose.  I had dealt with thieves before,
so decided to pull a trap on him.  Slipping word out
I contacted the Duke who sent a couple mostly sober
mercenaries to break the thief's spine.  I grinned as
the battle began, then saw the thief drop from a blow,
hitting the floor hard and remain unmoving.  The two
mercenaries laughed and tipped their hat at me walking
out the door.  I hummed to myself as I walked to the 
backroom to get the mop bucket and cleanup the lousy
thief's blood.  When I returned, the body was gone!
So was my stash from under the counter!  What magic
or trickery was this??  I hastily looked around and
checked over my shoulder a few dozen times, but only
found a hastily scratched note: 'Even a cutpurse can 
learn from the lord of speed.'