Judging a book by its cover....

Yesterday I was robbed in broad daylight! Literally because they were books and also literally cos it was daytime. It's so obvious after the event when you think back on it; two middle aged men came in one asked for philosphy books, while the other went straight to the back of the shop to eye up the children's books. The first man, who looked too simple and badly dressed, to be asking for the philosophy section came to pay for two books (value aprox. £15) with a credit card which didn't work, thereby distracting me from his accomplice; he'd chosen them too quickly as well so I sensed that something was wrong. My suspicions, having been aroused, meant that I was trying to keep an eye on the tea leaving scally at the back while he, as I found out later was trousering (actually bagging and coating) several Billy Bunter Annuals (aprox value £100) While I'm being distracted by the man trying to pay the scally walks out in a bit of a hurry and pays for one of the Billy Bunter annuals, presumeably to throw me off the scent. I think I noticed that his bag looked a little heavy, but could swear that it wasn't when he walked in. Half an hour late the penny drops and I look at the shelf of Billy Bunters with a large gap missing. Tea leaves long gone off to their secret hideaway to devide up their booty! Or at least that's what I thought had happened until this morning when the man who'd tried to pay on his card and asked me to keep the two books for him turned up, with cash this time, to pay for his books. Such was my surprise to see him that I couldn't help myself, I stopped short of violence or even actually accusing him of the crime, but I did ask him if he was with another man yesterday and implied that it was a huge coincidence that the books were going missing at that exact time. I have to admit that it wouldn't have made any sense for him to come back for his books (unless he's a philosophical cleptomaniac or something) and he did stay awhile and bought two more books also. He made a sort of feeble, I've been hurt, joke as he opened his carrier bag to show that he wasn't hiding anything! I've learnt a valuable lesson from this: you just never can jump to conclusions, no matter what someone looks like, or sounds like, or however obvious something looks. Dare I say it, I really will from now on never judge a book by it's cover....