Saturday, 4 August 2012

A short story - Faceless


I steal. It is so easy. I just need a name.  That’s all I need to start.
People are so careless. When they speak on the phone in the busy cafe, they don’t know I am standing behind them, listening while they call out their Account number.
When they throw out their garbage, it is so easy to get their address from an old bill that has not been shredded.
The leave behind so much information on social networking sites. They never know I go through every word and know every detail of their lives from the name of their pet dog to the next holiday they are planning.
I have a lot of patience. I can wait for months and years as I put together each piece of information together and then build a profile of my target.
And I always test them first to see if they really are as foolish as they look. They are busy and harried. Do they notice if I take Rs. 100 from the third bank account?
And then when I am sure they will not notice, and I have all my information, I go in for the kill. I steal everything I can. I clean them out. They never know what hit them.
I wasn’t always like this. Would you believe me if I tell you I used to work in a BPO? But as I spent my nights talking to irate customers about the wrong payments on their credit cards, it struck me. It was so simple to get the information about the customers. It was so easy to use their name and take their money. My mother told me I used to love solving puzzles when I was young. I used to spend hours putting together every small piece till I got the last bit of the puzzle solved.
And that’s what I do now. People may call me a Fraudster. But I am really a puzzle solver. Did I tell you how I cleared out an old lady of her entire bank account? She was so careless. Poor lady, she just died of shock. I attended her funeral just to see her one last time. Do you think I killed her? I hate violence. I would never do that. She just didn’t take care of her money. So I took care of it and took it all away. She never got to know.
I steal. No one sees my face. No one knows me. I live alone with my money and dreams. Tomorrow, I will find one more target.

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