by, Vedant S. – Age 10

Manjhi lives in Townsville, Virginia. He is a world class detective, or at least that’s what he thinks of himself! He found his friend’s lost dog, found out who stole the town mayor’s favorite doughnut, and solved the mystery of little Timmy’s lost toy train. But, now he wanted to solve a big mystery. A mystery that would make him famous and respecte—

“Manjhi, time for the hike!” It was Manjhi’s mom.

They were supposed to go on a trail which had opened near their house recently. He would have to think about how to solve a big mystery later. 

When they reached the trail, it looked kind of boring. Nothing exciting. Just a bunch of birds chirping and tall trees. The trail felt wet because it had rained a day ago. But, when they started walking, he heard a voice from behind,

“I lost my wallet! Oh no! Somebody help! Please!”

“Excuse me,” Manjhi said. “What has happened?”

Manjhi told his mom and dad that they should go ahead and he would join them later. He walked towards the woman who was elderly.

The woman replied, “I was walking up the trail, and I checked my pocket, and my wallet was gone! I checked up and down the trail frantically as well, and it was nowhere to be found!”

Manjhi thought for a second. Then he asked the lady, “did anyone walk past you while you were walking up the trail?”

“Why, yes, the lady answered. “There was a man who was wearing a New England Patriots jersey and had a moustache.”

“Anybody else?” Manjhi asked.

“That was the only person I remember,” the lady replied.

Manjhi then asked “Which way did he go after that?”

“Left,” the lady said.

“How would you like it if I found your wallet for you?” Manjhi asked.

“Yes! Please bring my wallet back!” the woman pleaded.

“Oh, one more question?” Manjhi asked. “What color is the wallet?”

“Orange,” the lady replied.

Manjhi told the lady to stay where she was and he would go to the trail in search of the lady’s orange wallet.

First Manjhi did a double check to see if the wallet had fallen on the trail.

He didn’t find anything. But, just when he was walking back, he saw a souvenir coin from a history museum, lying on the ground next to a muddy footstep. He went back to the lady with the coin and asked her, “is this yours?”

The lady replied saying “Oh yes! this is a very precious souvenir I got from my grandson when we visited the history museum.”

Now Manjhi’s detective brain thought of another possibility–whose footsteps could that be?! Could it be the man the lady described?!

He ran on the trail, following the muddy footsteps to the left, but he saw no sign of the moustache guy wearing a Patriots jersey.

Then when he was gasping, he saw the moustache guy with the Patriots jersey walking suspiciously back to the parking lot! Manjhi started running to reach the man. But, the man saw Manjhi and he started running too!

Now, Manjhi’s suspicion became stronger.

Manjhi was running as fast as he could to catch the man, but the man was about to reach his car! Manjhi then saw a shortcut to reach him, and cut him off right before he could get in his car! He grasped him so he could not move.

“Hey!” he said. “Why are you holding me?”

“You stole the old lady’s wallet! That’s why I caught you” Manjhi replied.

“Wha-how-how do you know?” The man fumbled.

“The old lady gave me some clues, and I figured out where you were,” Manjhi responded, “Now come on, you’re going to the police!” 

Manjhi returned to the old lady with the guy and the wallet. The old lady said “Thank you, young man! How can I repay you?”

“Oh, you don’t need to repay me. This is casual for me, solving mysteries and stuff like this.”

He told the old lady to call 911 so the police could put the thief in jail. Then he quickly returned to his mom and dad.

They sighed, “Where have you been? We’ve been waiting for you!”

Manjhi replied “Oh, I was just admiring the birds on the trees.”

THE END