Rajeev and the Wrath of Bhagoba

The kingdom of Bhagoba was a small and dusty place. The only thing that Bhagobians were more proud of than their history was their rum. The two were inseparable, the rum and the history. Even the people’s names were stained by their favourite drink. Rajeev, for example, had both his parents die from drinking too much rum. Rajeev was the name given to him by his father, who was a huge fan of Mahatma Gandhi and not a big fan of alcohol. But even he succumbed to the ancient and seductive powers of the rum on one fateful day when he was away in India on business and had nothing else to eat or drink except for some rum. It didn’t take long for Rajeev’s mother to follow. They died with silly grins on their faces, holding each other’s hands while they lay on a dirty floor in the backroom of a nearby tavern.

Rajeev inherited his ability to sense and interpret the intentions of others from his parents. Being able to read minds could be extremely useful for a detective but Rajeev always thought this gift was more suited to a bartender, as that was how his parents managed to drink themselves to death in a land where alcohol was forbidden. Especially his mother, she would have made an excellent bartender if she hadn’t been born in Bhagoba. She died before she got a chance to try her hand at mixing drinks, though.

Rajeev had no idea what he should do with this gift, so he decided to become a detective like all good detectives seem to do these days. His first case was an easy one: Who stole my book? He looked at everyone who passed by and finally found out it was one of his neighbours who had stolen it because she needed something to rest her feet on when she sat down to knit socks during the evening hours. Rajeev gave her back her book with many apologies and she started knitting another pair of socks as soon as he left her place.

Now Rajeev was facing another challenge: Who kidnapped King Jawmues?

Rajeev knew that he had an advantage over all other detectives because he could look into people's minds while they spoke or acted, but still he couldn't figure it out right away and struggled for days without any progress whatsoever until he finally figured out that someone must have infiltrated the castle because nobody would be stupid enough to try and kidnap a king from within his own castle walls unless they were completely nuts or completely stupid or completely nuts... Or maybe all three at once? Maybe? That sounded about right! And what better way to get into the castle than by pretending you are one of those two things? For example: You pretend you are nuts and you go around saying: "I want to kidnap King Jawmues." If you then happen to get arrested because someone overhears you say this, you are taken into custody by the guardsmen and brought straight into the castle where they put you directly in front of King Jawmues himself! Then you just shake hands with him and say: "Hi there!" That would be perfect! What if nobody ever noticed that this person who wanted to kidnap King Jawmues was never searched by anyone? After all, they thought he was just nuts! Yes! That could work!

Rajeev immediately went looking for this particular suspect so that he could arrest him right away before someone would notice what a great job he had done there...

Oh wait... He already knew exactly where this suspect might be hiding. After all: He had been standing right in front of King Jawmues himself only minutes ago... How did he miss this guy!? Wasn't it a bit too obvious? Hadn't anyone else noticed him just standing there like that? What if people had started thinking he wanted to kidnap himself? One ridiculous idea led to another one until suddenly it hit him like lightning: Of course! This man must have been wearing an invisibility cloak! That explained everything! Now it made sense why nobody had seen him standing there in front of King Jawmues... Not even Rajeev could see him standing there but now that he knew what kind of cloak this guy must have been wearing, he could go out looking for him right away...