The trial of a Kleptomaniac.

In plane terms, kleptomania is characterised by an overpowering and uncontrollable urge to steal. Here, an individual suffers from a compelling desire to steal. What makes this different from "common" stealing is that an individual takes items that are of no importance to them. Things they don't require, especially if it's something that don't befit their status or something that they could easily afford or even something they could do without.

So, you wouldn't actually refer to a kleptomaniac as a criminal per say, since the person does not engage in stealing due to lack or financial inadequacies. He or she only enters into such an action in order to acquire a mental thrill that must be satisfied when triggered.

The first time I heard about a kleptomaniac was few years ago when I was in my penultimate year in high school. I was told about a former student who had graduated long before I joined. Let's just call him Bash.

So, Bash suffered from this disorder. He was actually the only child of a rich parent. I was told that his dad was an investment banker while his mum was a merchant in women's clothes, bags and shoes.

Bash would pilfer candies, biscuits, shoe laces, dirty socks, pencil eraser, rulers and exercise books ( old and new) from other students in his class. Needless to say, he never needed any of these things since he had parents that could comfortably afford tonnes of any of these items.

Infact, just by mere looking at him, you would know that he comes from a well-to-do home. His school sandals, socks, bags and lunch box are of a higher quality than that of other students in the school. So why on earth does he have to steal? This was a kid whose parents were always the first to pay the tuition fee.

Infact it would appear to be normal if other students from less previleged background steal from Bash and not the other way round.

In a short while, rumors begin to go round the school and in the neighborhood, that Bash was under a curse. It was said that his parents had sacrificed their son in exchange for wealth. Ofcourse, in the African society, situations like this which defies logic are always attributed to witchcraft and spiritualism. Some folks even suggested that either or both of his parents must have committed a very abominable act in the past, and Bash's condition was their karma.

Sometimes, Bash's father would be summoned to school by our principal and the old man would start weeping after he had been told that his son was found stealing yet again.

Whenever an item got missing in class, everyone would know who the thief was. But bash would keep swearing in the name of God that he wasn't the one. When the interrogation becomes too much for him to bear, he'd start crying and out of sympathy, some of the female students would cry along too. The teacher has to keep pleading with bash to reveal where he has hid the item, especially when it's something very important which hadn't been found in his bag and locker after a thorough search.

Bash would later lead the teacher to one of the corners in the school premises where he kept his loot. They may include but not limited to: an old lunch box, dirty spoons, batteries of the class wall clock, watches, decaying snacks, cotton wool from the first aid box, a teacher's phone charger, biro cover, empty packet of chalk, amongst other plenty things.

The principal had already warned his teacher never to whip or punish bash whenever he was caught since he was no ordinary child. During morning assembly, he never failed to advise his students to be very careful about their properties. When exams time are fast approaching, the hard-working students always take extra care of their note books and textbooks lest they go missing.

As expected, some students started calling bash a thief in our local dialect and laughed at him. This really hurt bash who would later report such students to the principal and they would be punished severely. There was a time that some mischievous students started taking advantage of bash's condition. Such students would steal from others and get away with it and everyone might believe that it was bash who did it. So, you could imagine the agony that this boy would go through whenever he's been threatened to return the item he never took.

But one good thing about bash was that, he never stole money. He only took items. So, whenever there's an alarm of a missing sum, the teacher would definitely know where not to look, and just maybe after a thorough investigation, the real thief would be found.

Despite his debilitating habit, he was loved by many students because he was kind and compassionate. There was a time that Bash even help a stranded student with transportation fare back home after her money was stolen from her bag earlier on. Ofcourse, bash was never short of money, his parents were very rich.

As a result of his condition, bash parents never allowed him to mingle with strangers or go to public places like the market or the cinema all by himself. If caught stealing, he could be served jungle justice, especially in a country like ours where folks have very little patient for criminals. Bash was far from being a criminal by the way, but no one would believe that , would they ?

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Thanks for reading. 💖💖💖