The long straw

Mr Mays reached for his wallet. It was gone. Quickly he looked through his other pockets, in his desk, in his coat. He went back to the front door of the building which he had entered half an hour before. Then he remembered. He knew he had the wallet when he came to work. He was in the office when he gave a dollar to his secretary toward a gift for one of the girls.

“The wallet must still be in my office, ” he thought to himself.

He turned around and started back to his desk again. As he opened the door to his room, he took a short, quick breath. There on his desk was his wallet. He opened it to make sure everything was all right. The wallet was empty.

“So, ” thought Mr Mays, “it has happened again. This time our office thief has got quite a bit of money. I can call the police, which I think I should do, or I can call an office meeting, which I think I will do, ” he said to himself.

Mr Mays pushed the button that called his secretary. When she heard the sound, she came into his office immediately.

“Yes, Mr Mays? ” she said.

“Gloria, tell all the employees that we are having a meeting in Room 3. There can be no excuse for not attending. While we are at the meeting, I want you to stay at your desk by the front door and answer all telephone calls.”

“Yes, Mr Mays, ” answered Gloria.

She had been Mr Mays’ secretary for almost fifteen years, and nothing surprised her.

“Meanwhile, Gloria, I don’t want anyone to come in.”

Mr Mays walked up and down his office for about five minutes and then he went to the basement of the building. He returned almost immediately with a broom.

“May I help you, Mr Mays? ” Gloria asked as he walked by her desk, broom in hand.

“No, thank you, Gloria, ” he answered as he walked into his office and shut the door.

“Is Mr Mays cleaning his own office these days? ” asked Joey.

“Apparently, ” Gloria smiled back at him.

At eleven o’clock Mr Mays walked out of his office. He nodded to Gloria, saying, “Please, stay at your desk now.”

When Mr Mays arrived at Room 3, he glanced around quickly to see that all the employees except Gloria were present. When he noted that they were, he began speaking.

“It is difficult for me to inform you that my wallet was stolen this morning by one of my own employees.”

A murmur went through the small crowd in the room.

Mr Mays continued speaking quickly.

“I have thought about this problem and now I am sure I know who the thief is. I ask the thief to speak now. All he must do is return the money to me and explain why he took it.”

No one in the room moved. No one in the room turned. Everyone in the room stopped breathing.

But nothing happened.

“Very well, ” said Mr Mays. “I will show you that I know who the thief is. I am now going to give each of you a straw – a straw from a broom. All the straws are the same length except one. That one is longer than the others. I will give the long straw to the thief.

“After I have given a straw to each person, I will leave the room. I want all of you to compare the straws so that you will all know who the thief is. Call me when you are through, and we will decide what to do with the thief.”

Mr Mays gave one straw to each employee as he spoke, making sure that each straw was not seen by another. Then he left.

The room was filled with excitement. Everyone was nervous as they compared the straws. Straw after straw was the same length. At last it was all over. Ruth called Mr Mays back into the room.

“Mr Mays, something is wrong. No one has the long straw. Henry has one that is a little shorter. Otherwise, they are all the same length. We’re happy to tell you that no one in this office is guilty.”

“But that’s wrong, Ruth. Someone is guilty. You told me that Henry had a straw that was a little shorter. So I say Henry is the thief! ”

“How can you say that, Mr Mays? ” Ruth asked.

“Because all the straws I gave out were the same length, Ruth. Henry knew he was guilty, and he thought I had given him the long straw. So he broke off a little bit of his straw to make it the same as the others. But in doing that, he made it shorter. So it is really the short straw that caught the thief.

“Now, Henry, tell me. How did you break the straw? Did you bite off a little bit of it, or did you break it off with your fingernail? ” Then Mr Mays said, “It doesn’t matter. We must call the police.”