One Fish Short

Yelena worked at the city zoo. She took care of the penguins. Every morning she gave them fish from a blue bucket. Every morning she counted the fish.

She put forty fish in the bucket. Then she gave thirty-nine to the penguins. She kept the last fish in a box.

One Monday she opened the box. It was empty.

"That is odd," Yelena said. "I put one fish here."

She counted again. The bucket held thirty-nine fish. The box had none. One fish was gone.

On Tuesday the same thing happened. On Wednesday it happened again. Each day there was one fish less.

Yelena looked at the penguins. There were twelve of them. They stood on the rocks in a line. They looked at her with round black eyes.

"Did one of you take it?" she asked.

The penguins said nothing. A small penguin named Pip made a loud noise. Yelena laughed.

"You are too small to open the box," she said.

She told her friend Dario about the problem. He worked with the monkeys next door.

"Maybe a bird eats it," Dario said. "Or a cat from the street."

"The box has a heavy lid," said Yelena. "A bird cannot lift it."

"Then look at the box," said Dario. "Watch it all day."

On Thursday Yelena sat on a chair near the penguins. She watched the box. She ate a sandwich. She watched the penguins swim. Nothing happened for a long time.

At noon, the zoo got very loud. A school group came to see the penguins. Thirty children ran to the glass wall. Yelena stood up to talk to them. For one minute she did not look at the box.

The children asked many questions. "Do penguins get cold?" "Can they fly?" Yelena answered every one.

When the children left, she looked down. The box was open.

She looked around. A small shape moved behind the rocks. It was brown and wet. It had a long tail.

An otter!

The otter lived in the next pool. A thin fence stood between the two homes. The fence had a small hole at the bottom. The otter held a fish in its paws. It looked at Yelena. Then it ate the fish.

"You!" Yelena said. "You are the thief!"

The otter made a happy sound. It cleaned its face with its paws.

Yelena laughed so hard that she sat down. The children came back to see what was funny.

That afternoon she told Dario. He laughed until he cried.

"A thief with fur," he said. "I must tell the monkeys."

Then she told the boss. A worker came with a net and a hammer. He fixed the small hole in the fence.

On Friday Yelena put forty-one fish in the bucket. She gave thirty-nine to the penguins. She put one fish in the box. She left the last fish near the otter pool.

"This is for you," she said. "Please do not steal anymore."

The otter picked up the fish at once.