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The smell thief

- Joanne Bloch (retold folktale)

One old woman especially loved the smells that drifted out of the bakery window every morning. This was Ma Shange who slept on a bench in the park every night. A few weeks before, a kind person had given her the money to buy herself a cinnamon bun. She had taken the bun back to the park and ate it very slowly, licking her lips and sharing the last crumbs with the birds. After that, although the old woman didn't have enough money to buy breakfast, she longed for the delicious bun again. So, every morning she walked slowly past Mr Shabangu's bakery, sniffing the air and smiling blissfully at the mouth-watering smell. Ma Shange's new habit made the baker very angry. As each day went by, he grew angrier and angrier with her. Finally, one winter morning when he was in an especially bad mood, he stormed out of his bakery and grabbed the old woman by the arm. "How dare you steal my smells!" he shouted. "You're nothing but a smell thief!" He wiped his hands on an apron, then pulled it off and threw it back into the bakery.

License information: CC BY 4.0
MPAA: G
Go to source: https://www.africanstorybook.org/

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