ALL THOSE NOUGHTS

All Those Noughts

Sulo was a man that everybody noticed. He was a big man. He had the fat smooth face of a man who ate very well. He had a wonderful head of white hair. You knew he was someone important. And his clothes told you that he was a rich man.

But he had not always been rich. He came from a poor family. He was Latvian or Estonian (nobody really knows: he had several passports which said he was Greek or Brazilian). He decided that he wanted to make money, and became very good at it. Before he was twenty, he had his own 'Import and Export' business in Rio, with branches in several other countries. He had two sayings. The first was: 'Buy cheap and sell dear'. The second was: 'Never look back'.

Yes, Sulo was rich - and dishonest. He often bought stolen goods at a low price and sold them at a high price. He used cash, never signed anything, and never paid taxes. As he left his Zurich hotel in a taxi to go to the airport, he patted the briefcase on his lap. What would people say, he thought, if

they knew I had a million dollars in this briefcase! A million US dollars. He thought of their pretty green colour, of their pictures of the US Presidents and he thought of the number. All those noughts: USS 1.000.000. Six beautiful noughts!

Beautiful! He held the briefcase close to his body. Tonight, he thought, this money will be in a safe in Amsterdam. Sulo felt good.

Yanni was a man that nobody noticed. He was small and thin He did not look important. Nobody could ever remember his face. Yanni was Mr Nobody, always overlooked: he was invisible. He had Swiss identity documents, but he came from another country, Latvia or Estonia perhaps. He came from a poor family. When he was older, Yanni was glad that he was 'invisible', because it was useful for his work. His work? Yanni was a thief. And he was very good at it. Before he was twenty, he came to Zurich and got Swiss papers (nobody knows how).

He became a specialist in picking pockets and stealing purses from handbags. He had only one saying: 'Little and often'. He used to spend a lot of time at the main railway station, looking for 'customers'. Sometimes he liked to walk up Bahnhofstrasse and into one of the big department stores like Globus. Here it was easy to steal purses from open shopping bags. One day, his friend Dix, a specialist in stolen credit cards and foreign money, asked him: 'Yanni, have you ever thought of trying the Airport? There are lots of fat rich tourists there. Much better than the Railway Station, if you ask me.'

So, one day, Yanni took the bus out to the airport and went into Departures to see what he could find. At the KLM desk he noticed a big man with a fat face and a lovely head of white hair. He noticed that the man was having some trouble with the girl behind the counter. He noticed, too, that the man had put his briefcase on the ground. The man was too busy arguing with the girl to think about his case. It would be easy …

Sulo was angry. 'I booked the flight a week ago. 1 told your office in town that I would pick my ticket up at the airport today. So where is it?'

'I'm sorry, sir, but I have no record of the booking. Could you spell your name again?'

'Really! This is not good enough.'

He spelled out his name to her in the kind of loud slow voice that you use when talking to idiots:

'My name is Sulo. S-U-L-O. Now hurry up or I'll miss my flight to Amsterdam.'

After some more minutes, the girl finally found Sulo's booking; it was listed under Solo, an easy mistake to make. She gave Sulo his ticket.

'If you have only hand luggage, sir, you can go straight through now.'

'Good. Yes,' Sulo said, 'I only have my br .. .'

He looked down. The briefcase had disappeared. He looked round, his eyes wild. For a moment he thought he was going to faint. His face was white. It wasn't possible! It just wasn't

possible! He stared at the place where he had put the case down, as if he expected it to reappear. Suddenly, he felt as if he was going to be sick. He had to go to the toilet. Quickly.

While Sulo was arguing at the KLM desk Yanni went downstairs to the toilet. He went into the nearest cubicle and closed the door behind him. He was quite excited. A briefcase could contain all sorts of useful things: a calculator perhaps, or some expensive pens. Or some foreign money. Dix would buy that from him. Or there would be some credit cards. Dix would be happy to take them too.

'Little and often,' he said to himself, smiling. 'Steal a little, steal often.' He began to sing softly, because Yanni was happy in his work, unlike most people.

He sat on the toilet, put the briefcase on his knees, rubbed his hands and opened the case. He cried out when he saw the piles of green banknotes. Millions and millions of US dollars!

He felt afraid. His face went white and he felt sick. Big money like this was big trouble, and he didn't want any trouble.

'What shall I do? What shall I do?'

He wished that Dix was there to help him. Dix would know what to do.

'Perhaps I should put it down the toilet,' he thought. 'No, that would take a long time. No. Just leave it! Leave it and get out, fast!' He felt angry now. He hated the big man with the fat face and the white hair. Why couldn't he just carry a few credit cards and a small quantity of cash like normal people? Why didn't he have something that an honest thief could steal. Not millions and millions of dollars like this. This was stupid. Too much money. No good for anybody. Yanni closed the case and

hit the lid with his fists.

'It's just not fair!' he said out loud. He put the briefcase out of sight behind the toilet. He hoped that nobody would find it before he had got away from the airport.

'Let's get back to Bahnhofstrasse and steal a few purses, purses that have normal amounts of money in them. A few francs here, a few francs there ... '

As he went up the stairs, he saw the big man with the white hair coming down. Yanni's heart stopped. He looked away quickly. Sulo did not even notice him. Sulo went downstairs and ran into the nearest cubicle. He closed the door and sat on the toilet, his head in his hands. 'How could I have been so stupid?' he asked himself. 'A million dollars! A million dollars! And some dirty little thief has stolen it! Well, if I ever catch him, I'll kill him. There are thieves everywhere nowadays. The world isn't safe for decent people any more. ' It was good to get angry. It made him feel better. But not much better. He realized that. there was nothing he could do about the lost money. He got up and went out of the cubicle.

The briefcase was still behind the toilet, but Sulo did not look back. Sulo never looked back.

IMAGINE that you are Yanni. You will be thinking for him and talking for him in the first person. A few days after the incident, he is giving it some thought. What would be his reflections?

Choose one of the beginnings below and continue consequently:

A. I think what I did was right because …......................

B. I think I made a big mistake leaving the money because …......................

C. Really, the more I think about it the more confused I am because ….....................

WRITE, at least 120 words.

MAKE A RECORDING of your voice reading the reflections. Please, try to make if fun to listen to.

DEADLINE: 25/05/14
at
10.00 pm

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B. I think I made a mistake of leaving money because instead of doing that, you could go to the desk of the airport and tell the receptionist that had left a suitcase in the bathroom, but I would not say that you've stolen but have lost it and I've found, I've asked everywhere who could be and have not told me anything, so that would leave there, nor would I say that I have opened and I had found a lot of money in it because if I say that they will think it was me that stole it, even if it appears Mr. suitcase, the same, I'd say they have stolen and you would know it was me.