The trickster by Mariana Alderete

The Trickster by Mariana Alderete
(based on the Umbrella Man by Roald Dahl)

I’m going to tell you about a thing that happened and irritated me so much yesterday evening. Well, my daughter Sara and I went out of the dentist's and then we went into a café to drink something. Sara chose a banana split and I only had a cup of coffee. When we went out of the café it started to rain heavily so I decided to get a taxi. We were lucky that we were wearing ordinary clothes and not something new or expensive because we were soaked to the skin. My daughter asked me to go inside the café again and wait till the rain stopped but I knew it wouldn't, so I told her we would go to the pavement to wait for a taxi. Yet, unfortunately they were all busy.
Suddenly I saw a man coming in our direction. He was old and small, ‘I don’t like this man at all’ I told myself. The man took his hat off and asked me politely for a favor and I answered him cool and distant that I was not going to give him any money.
I consider myself a suspicious person and everybody knows that, especially my daughter. I always tell Sara ‘you can always spot a gentleman by the shoes he wears’ and the man was really well-dressed but I had to protect my girl, 'cause as I also say, no matter how well-dressed a man can be, you never know what could happen if you trust a stranger so quickly.

‘I beg you to believe, madam, that I am not in the habit of stopping ladies in the street and telling them my troubles’ the man said.

‘I should hope not’ I answered him.

I took a look at my daughter and I knew she was embarrassed by my sharpness. But I couldn’t trust him so easily, no. He told me that he had forgotten his wallet, which he had never forgotten before. ‘Great! Just great! He wants money, I knew it!’ said a voice in my head. He wanted a pound to pay for his taxi-fare giving us his umbrella in exchange. He said he always went out for long walks but he had forgotten his wallet and he was too tired to walk. It was a silk umbrella and as I wanted to end the conversation, I took a pound out, handed it to him and took the umbrella. The man was very thankful so I guessed he was a gentleman and not a trickster after all.
However, some minutes later, Sara and I saw the man crossing the street very quickly. He
did not look very tired so we decided to follow him. We walked a lot till he entered a pub and we stayed out and looked through the window. He found his place at the bar and told something to the barman who later brought him a brown liquid...neat whisky. Next, he put MY pound on the counter. I couldn’t believe it!
The umbrella man cleaned his moustache with his tongue. Then he started walking to the door again and put his hat and his coat on, but what surprised me the most was that he took an umbrella from the coat-rack. He was stealing umbrellas! I immediately realized what his game was, he never went to the same pub twice and asked for a pound in exchange for a umbrella that he stole from some pub in order to afford a glass of whisky every rainy day.
But I am not going to let him do it any more, that is why I'm warning all of you to be careful.