A Science Fiction Story?
One afternoon some friends rang up Susan and Derek to invite them out for evening. They hadn’t seen each other for a long time, but Susan had bought tickets for the theatre that evening. They wanted to see the play very much, because several people had recommended it to them. Also, it had been very difficult to get tickets. In fact, they had only been able to get these because someone else had returned them. Susan and Derek had not arranged anything else for the evening, however, so they agreed to meet their friends for a drink before the theatre.
They all met early in the evening and talked for an hour. When Susan got up, she found that her handbag had disappeared. They told the manager what had happened. He was very upset and said that nothing like that had happened for a long time. He went off to have a look around, but nobody had seen the thief. No one had handed the bag in either.
Susan was upset because there had been quite a lot of money in it. They decided to go to the theatre and forget about it for a few hours. They hoped that the thief had just taken the money out and thrown the bag away. If someone had found it, it couldn’t be at the police station yet.
Suddenly Susan remembered that the theatre tickets had been in the bag too. She had meant to give them to Derek, but had forgotten. By this time the play had already started, so they decided it was not worth going to the theatre. They went for a meal with their friends and later went to the nearest police station. To their surprise, Susan’s bag was there with everything in it! A gypsy child had picked it up, the parents had discovered what had happened and had handed it in immediately.
They went straight to the theatre and, with the money they thought they had had lost, bought four expensive seats – for three months later!
Это был обычный учебный текст 60х годов. Автор лишь слегка «подхулиганил», кое-что подправив. Не судите строго …