A five-pound note is missing from the office. Can it be found? Who has stolen it? With these questions in mind, read the following short play and try to find the answer.

Narrator: Nobby Stiles and Jim Dixon work in the same office, but they have never been good friends. One Friday morning a five-pound note has been stolen, and when a policeman calls to interview the two office boys, Nobby tries to throw the blame on Jim. (Exit narrator.)

Policeman: Now then, Nobby, you say there were just two of you at the office this morning when the five-pound note disappeared.

Nobby: That’s right, just Jim and me.

Policeman: And where did the five-pound note come from in the first place?

Nobby: It arrived in an envelope, in payment of a bill.

Policeman: You mean someone dared to send cash by an ordinary mail?

Nobby: Oh, that often happens, and it’s not the first time it has disappeared, either. There’s someone with light fingers around here.

Jim: Well, you needn’t look at me like that, Nobby Stiles. After all, it was you who opened the letter, and you who took out the five-pound note in the first place.

Nobby: Well, I always check the mail for the boss before he gets here, don’t I?

Jim: Perhaps you check it too well sometimes!

Policeman: Now then you two, just stop it. (Turning to Nobby) If you opened the letter, Nobby, and took out the five-pound note, then how did it get stolen?

Nobby: That’s exactly what I’d like to know. I got here at eight o’clock this morning, a few minutes before Jim—he’s often a bit late. I’d begun opening the mail when I realized I’d forgotten to buy the boss’s newspaper on the way to the office.

Jim: I fetch the paper on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, and it’s Nobby’s turn the rest of the week.

Nobby: I normally buy it at the newsagent’s round the corner, so I just went out to get a copy this morning.

Jim: Yes, that’s right, because you were leaving the office just as I arrived.

Policeman: And where was the five pounds all this time, Nobby?.

Nobby: Well, usually it’s the boss who looks after money—the safe’s in his office—but since he hadn’t arrived, I folded and slipped it into my desk dictionary here.

Policeman: Why did you do that?

Nobby: Well, I didn’t want to carry it out into the street, and I wasn’t going to leave it lying around to tempt anyone coming into the office as soon as I had left for a moment!

Policeman: So you hid it in this dictionary. (He flicks through the book.) Well, it’s certainly a good hiding place, all 364 pages of it!

Nobby: You’re right, and that’s what I thought! I slipped it in between pages 123 and 124—one, two, three, and four, that’s easy to remember. That’s why I put the note there, so I could find it quickly when I got back.

Policeman: Clever boy!

Nobby: Yes. I was only out for a minute or so. The dictionary was in the same place when I returned, but when I opened it the money was gone. And I know where. I’m afraid that the only other person in the office at that time was Jim.

Jim: But I tell you, I didn’t take the money.

Policeman: I’m sure you didn’t, Jim, but I think I know who did. Nobby Stiles, you’d better accompany me to the police station, young man.

Narrator: And the policeman was right, for Nobby later admitted that he had stolen the money and hidden it outside the office when he went for the newspaper. But what made the policeman suspect Nobby?

Adapted from English Teaching Forum, October, 1981.

Approximately 600 words

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[1] To throw the blame on Jim:to make Jim responsible for the missing five-pound note
[2] Now then :used at the beginning of a sentence to attract the attention of the listener 喂（我说，听着）
[3] in the first place:usually means 首先,but here it means 当初，原先。
[4] In payment of a bill:to pay for things bought or services offered.
[5] Ordinary mail: 平邮，没有挂号
[6] someone with light fingers:someone who has the habit of stealing small things
[7] and it’s Nobby’s turn the rest of the week:and Nobby fetches the paper on Thursdays and Fridays
[8] newsagent’s:newspaper stand ,a place to sell newspapers