The Stolen White Elephant

 “He wants to talk to the thieves and offer them half of the reward money. He says they will accept fifty dollars for the elephant. That means I have to raise the reward to one hundred thousand. He says the poor detectives who are working on the case will get the other half of the reward I will be penniless, but I do it.” (p.46)

 
   

"The Stolen White Elephant" was written by Mark Twain. The narrator, the main character was transporting a beautiful white elephant from Siam to Britain as a gift to the Queen. However, when he stopped in New York, the white elephant was stolen. Then, he asked Blunt who is a chief inspector to find the stolen elephant. He was very confident, and after he asked the characteristic of the elephant, he commanded other inspectors to detect the elephant and asked the narrator to set the reward. However, many weeks later, there were only eyewitness reports, and no one caught it. So, Blunt proposed the narrator to raise the reward many times. The narrator didn't want to lose his position, so he accepted and in the end, he used all of his money for it. Then, when Blunt took the deliverer to the building basement, he found the white elephant. The elephant has already dead. After that, while the inspectors were celebrated, the narrator lost the job and money. He dead from hunger at last.
    My first surprise of this book is that this is a detective story, but the main character was the client, not the inspector. Second is the ending was very tragic. I've never imagined the story that the client had to walk sad way by asking the inspector about thief. I was very shocked by this book.


Twain, M. (2007). The Stolen White Elephant. Helbling Languages.