My name is Ted. I own a small clothing-store. I’m 40. Business is good. There’s only one problem. Shoplifters. Of course they cost me money, but that’s not the big problem. They make me mad. I’ve tried everything; calling the police, forcing them to stand outside the shop with a sign saying “I’m a thief – I stole from this shop” and other things, but nothing seems to work.

Almost all the shoplifters are women or should I say girls, because they’re almost all young too.

Today business is slow. Only two customers in the shop. One girl who has been here several times before, and a middle aged woman. The girl often comes in and buys a pair of socks or pantyhose, but never any of the clothes she tries on every time she’s in the store. I’ve had my suspicions about her, but never caught her taking anything. Since there are few customers I can keep my eyes on the girl. She walks around the store picking out a pair of tight dresses and some panties and a bra. She walks towards the fitting room.

The woman comes over to the cash-counter and pays for a pair of trousers. She leaves. The girl is still in the fitting-room. I walk closer to the fitting-room to get a better view of the situation. I pretend I’m folding some sweaters when the girl leaves the fitting-room. She heads for the cash-counter with one pair of panties in her hand. I quickly look into the fitting-room and see there is only one dress and a couple of panties there. I then follow the girl to the counter.

“I’ll take these” she says and places one pair of panties on the counter. I look at her to see signs of the other dress or any other clothes she might have stuffed underneath her clothes. I can’t see anything, but I’m sure she had a bra and a black tight dress with her in to the fitting-room and they are not left there.

“Will that be all” I ask. She nods. “Are you sure?” She looks nervous but nods again.

“I’m afraid I will have to ask you to accompany me over to the fitting-room over here” I say and start walking there. The girl hesitantly comes along. “You see I observed you walk in here with two dresses one black and one red. You also brought those panties you wanted to pay for, a couple of other panties and a black push-up bra. Now I look in here and I only see the red dress and a couple of panties. I have a degree in mathematics from college and therefore I know this doesn’t add up. Can you tell me why?”

The girl lowers her head.