Tan Feng was my one and only friend in Sichuan. He was the same age as me: about eight or nine. Tan Feng's family lived next door to us, and their other kids were all girls, so you can imagine how they spoiled their only boy. They really adored him, but they didn't know what he got up to. Tan Feng stole things. Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection Madwoman on the Bridge.

Thirteen stories of outrageous heists starring one smooth thief The dictator of the island of Jabali wants a baseball team, and he doesn’t care how he gets it. He has assembled nine of the finest players on the island, and is about to hire Nick Velvet to steal him some competition. Ordinary thieves might not be up to pinching a whole ball club, but Velvet specializes in lifting seemingly worthless items, and in this year’s National League, there is nothing more worthless than the hapless Beavers. He steals them easily—but will the island’s ruler be satisfied with a last-place team? In these charming stories starring one of Edward D. Hoch’s most popular characters, everything is up for grabs. Velvet steals sea serpents, garbage, cats, and toy mice—all with his trademark low-key style. In Nick Velvet’s underworld, there is nothing he won’t steal, so long as it’s priceless, worthless, or just plain crazy.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Stories of the Three Burglars" by Frank Richard Stockton. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

The path from Europe to Africa has been much traveled in literature but rarely in such an evocative, nuanced, and even playful way as in N.S. Kenings's Theft. Here are five seductive tales that move with grace and subtlety between the two continents and reveal with insight and wit that what seem to be very separate worlds are not so far apart after all. In Pearls to Swine, a lonely childless socialite invites her American goddaughter to spend the summer in her mansion. In Wondrous Strange, a spirit medium is haunted by the ghost of an ancient African djinn. In Setting Up Shop, a young Zanzibari woman dreams of traveling to the U.S., even as a local entrepeneur courts her relentlessly, even promising to leave his other wives for her. More praise for The Blue Taxi: "The world Kenings has created in her accomplished debut is tragic and exhilarating, as is her portrayal of weary, left-behind colonialists, poverty-stricken natives and the uneasy manner in which each regards the other." -- Publishers Weekly "Kenings skillfully weaves together the stories of individuals from disparate cultures converging in a city that is entering a new era of political independence." -- The New Yorker

Yongshan is taking her son back to Licheng to visit relatives, and to see the town where she grew up. But when they get there, all she could find were desolate houses. Even the people on the street seemed not to recognise her. But then, in the rubble of her old neighbourhood, Yongshan finds something to grab hold of - a memento of the past. Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection Madwoman on the Bridge.