JAPANESE PICKPOCKET.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13453, 1 June 1907, Page 5 (Supplement)

JAPANESE PICKPOCKET.

TWO STORIES. Quite recently a Tokio gentleman, having occasion to visit Yokohama, found, upon arriving at the station, that his purse was gone, and that he would be unable to pay for his ticket. . Turning from the window of the booking office to the motley crowd that surrounded him, he noticed v suspiciouslooking individual standing near, eyeing him uneasily. , " You know me, you rascal," he roared. ■' Return that money you have stolen from me, and begone." The fellow did not seem at all surprised at being thus addressed, though for a moment he looked somewhat doubtful; then he beckoned the angry victim to one side, shoved a 10-yen bill into his hand, bowed profusely, and disappeared. Satisfied that he had * recovered even more money than he had lost, the traveller proceeded on his trip to Yokohama. In the evening, upon returning to his home in Tokio, he found his wife wondering how her husband had been getting on all day without his purse, which he had forgotten to take from the dressingtable while changing his clothes. It then dawned upon the mystified traveller that he had not only accurately divined the character of the man he had accosted at the station,, but had succeeded in having himself taken foi the head of the pickpocket association by this member ot the fraternity, who evidently thought it the better part of I valour to share with his superior the proceeds of the last raid. Japanese professionals of this class have I not only their peculiar codes of communal labour, " but ' a strange regard for public j opinion. The other day two passengers,! one of whom was a brilliant Tokio lawyer,' were on their way south by the Tokaido ! route, when they fell into a lively discussion < upon the subject of pickpockets. The law-j Iyer expressed alarm at the steadily increasing number of these parasites of society,! and. lamented the laxity of the police in (not rounding up more of them for punish- J ment. He loudly insisted, however, that] most of the losses by travellers while on the; itrain were due to the faults of the losers! themselves, who were not careful enough, I and more often than not put unnecessary | temptation in the way of the weak. " 1 have travelled extensively myself," he concluded, "and have never been robbed of a cent; no pickpocket has any chance with a careful man." J Just then the train stopped at his destina- j tion, and, saying good-bye to his friend, he arose to go, when to his astonishment a bag containing 3000 dollars and valuable papers had mysteriously vanished from his side. Thus incapacitated for the transaction of his I intended business, the discomfited member | of the Bar took the next train back to the ; I capital, a sadder but a wiser man. | Next morning the expressman brought a ! parcel to the house of the lawyer, which was found to enclose intact the bag and its contents, together with a polite note to the effect that the writer, unable to bear the lawyer's uncalled-for remarks overheard on the train, had taken the liberty of teaching indiscreet talkers a much-needed lesson, and that he hoped this timely hint from a Tokaido pickpocket had not caused him overmuch inconvenience.