“This can’t be.” Jan said and looked around to check if he was alone. He counted the money again and checked his calculations which were not adding up. He stared at the money, confused. He took the cash to the money box. He locked the shop and left.

His head was all over the place. All the workers had gone home. Only him, Thomas and Sheila worked on the till while Tawanda and Virginia did the cleaning and arranging stock on the shelves. The boss, Mr Tari was away on business. Jan didn’t want to lose his job because of money that was short. A thousand rand was missing but who was the culprit if he was the one cashing the money that day?

All the customers paid to him. They used one till. He was always accurate on the cash he was given, even his change was correct.

He met Thomas by the corner while walking home. He was smoking alone. “Why the long face?” he asked calmly.

“Money disappeared today.” he answered sadly.

“How? Maybe you miscounted the cash.” Thomas looked down and walked slowly.

“I have to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he spoke sadly.

“How will you do that?” Thomas persisted.

Jan just walked off, he wanted to be alone. Thomas stood there looking at him. Jan arrived home and took a shower. His mother was making him a spicy dinner.

“Jan, my son, why are you sad today?” she asked.

“Someone’s stealing in the shop,” he answered sadly.

“Oh my son, what are you going to do? Is Mr Tari still away?” she asked as she gave him his food.

“He is away but who could be stealing? This is tough.” he answered and crumbled food in his mouth.

He stared into space, he would use his savings and replace it. He will have to think of ways to catch the thief. It was between the five of them.

Jan slept with heavy thoughts. Mr Tari would not be happy when he found out someone was stealing. Mr Tari trusted the five of them. They started working together when the supermarket first opened. Jan had been friends with Thomas and Tawanda. They were jobless and they took Tawanda’s sisters, Virginia and Sheila along to work there.

Jan saw it as a good thing working with people he knew. It’d been six months and money was never counted short. When Mr Tari was available, there was never missing money. Maybe the thief wanted all of them to be suspected.

He had to think fast before Mr Tari came back. Jan was worried that if Mr Tari came back before he caught the thief, he would lose trust in Jan.

“Can you work together, I mean you trust your friends?” Mr Tari had asked him.

“I’ve known these people for years, sir.” Jan had answered confidently.

***

Tell us what you think: What do you think Jan will do?