Cheeku the rabbit and Blacky the bear, were two highly capable detectives with a record of solving very difficult cases. They had just set out for a morning walk when their attention turned to the house of Seth Tarachand the panda.

Seeing that there was a large crowd and also the police, Cheeku and Blacky reached Seth Tarachand’s house.

As soon as they learnt about the theft, they began to  talk loudly.

‘Oh, just a case of something being stolen? There is no point for us to stay here. Why should we get involved in such a small matter?’ Blacky said, making a face.

‘Exactly! It goes against our honour to pay attention to such a useless case. If it were a big issue, we would have taken on the case and solved it,’ Cheeku said proudly, catching the attention of the residents of Champakvan standing nearby.

‘Hey, these are detectives Cheeku and Blacky!’ pointed Heera the deer.

Upon hearing this, Seth Tarachand, who was standing right there, approached them.

‘I’m glad you’re here, detectives! Please, quickly catch the thief and recover my diamonds worth forty lakh rupees,’ Seth Tarachand said, his eyes filling with tears.

‘Sorry, Tarachand, but we don’t handle such small cases,’ Cheeku and Blacky said together.

‘This case is not ordinary. We don’t know how the thief managed to enter,’ Seth Tarachand explained hurriedly.

‘We do not deal with cases of stealing,’ Blacky said, folding his arms across his chest.

‘Please, I beg you! My diamonds are really valuable,’ Seth Tarachand pleaded, again and again, irritating Cheeku and Blacky.

‘What should we do now, Blacky? Tarachand is not letting us leave,’ Cheeku said in a low voice.

‘I thought everyone would think that we are great, and we could leave from here with pride, but I never expected this trouble,’ Blacky muttered.

‘That’s true, but what’s our plan now?’

‘We can pretend to work on catching the thief for some time. In the meantime, Inspector Chandu will probably catch the real thief,’ Blacky said, and Cheeku nodded in agreement.

‘All right, we’ll help you, but if anyone disturbs us in our work, we’ll stop,’ Cheeku declared, and Seth Tarachand agreed.

Seth Tarachand led Cheeku and Blacky inside the house.

Upon seeing Cheeku and Blacky, Inspector Chandu the cheetah became angry.

‘Where do you two think you’re going? Don’t you know there’s a police investigation going on here?’ Inspector Chandu shouted.

‘Come on, Blacky! We had already said that if someone does not let us work, we’ll leave,’ Cheeku said loudly, turning back.

‘Hey, what are you both doing? Inspector, I brought them in to help us. If you do not allow these two to find out about the theft, I will complain to the commissioner that you’re slowing down my efforts to quickly catch the thief,’ Seth Tarachand warned Chandu.

Upon hearing this, Inspector Chandu allowed Blacky and Cheeku to carry on with their work, but he was not very happy.

Cheeku and Blacky were surprised that Inspector Chandu had allowed them to carry on with their work.

‘Now what do we do?’ Blacky whispered.

‘We’ll pretend to catch the thief,’ Cheeku muttered, glancing at Inspector Chandu.

‘We’ll apply the 5-Ws-and-1-H theory to solve this case,’ Cheeku said, and Seth Tarachand was even more pleased with him.

Cheeku now faced Inspector Chandu, ‘First of all, Inspector Chandu, you will answer our questions.’

‘What kind of questions?’ Inspector Chandu asked, getting angry.

‘The 5 Ws and 1 H. Do you know what they mean?’ Cheeku asked, paying no attention to Inspector Chandu’s anger.

‘I know everything. The 5 Ws refer to what, where, when, why, who, and the 1 H refers to how,’ Inspector Chandu replied angrily.

‘Good! So, answer my first question. Who?’ Cheeku asked.

‘What who?’

‘I mean, who came here?’

‘What nonsense! If I knew who came here, the case wouldn’t need solving,’ Inspector Chandu shouted, leaving Cheeku and Blacky quite surprised.

‘Cheeku, you asked the wrong question,’ Blacky said softly.

‘Hahaha! Sir, I was just testing you to see how alert you are. I meant to say, how did the thief come inside?’ Cheeku said, laughing.

‘That is not known yet,’ Inspector Chandu replied with a deep sigh.

‘That means, we have the answers to 4 Ws but not the answers to 1 W and 1 H,’ Blacky said quickly.

‘Exactly! We have the answers to what, where, when, and why. Take note of that’ Cheeku said, signalling Blacky.

Blacky took out his pen and diary.

‘The answer to ‘what’ is: theft, the answer to ‘where’ is: in Seth Tarachand’s house, the answer to ‘when’ is: when he was not at home, and the answer to ‘why’ is: for the diamonds,’ Cheeku explained, and Blacky quickly noted down everything.

‘Now, let’s find the way through which the thief entered,’ Blacky said, and everyone started circling inside the house.

Even after making several rounds of the house, they could not find any place from where the thief could have entered.

‘Blacky, this is a mess! We don’t have any clue to understanding where the thief came in from,’ Cheeku said in a worried tone.

‘We should run away from here. We got into trouble for nothing,’ Blacky worriedly said.

‘Blacky, if we leave like this, everyone will make fun of us, and we will never be able to call ourselves great detectives,’ Cheeku said, trying his best to make Blacky understand.

‘Then, if you find any hole, big or small, say that the thief had entered from there, and let’s leave,’ Blacky suggested. Cheeku nodded, but even after looking again and again, he did not find any holes.

‘Now what?’ Cheeku asked.

‘The thief came in through the window,’ Blacky quickly declared.

‘How can that be possible? All the windows were tightly closed, we checked ourselves,’ Inspector Chandu and Seth Tarachand said together.

‘This was the cleverness of the thief. They first opened   the window by breaking the glass, and then, after the      theft, they cleaned the place and fixed another glass so that no one would know how they entered the house,’ Blacky explained.

‘Did Blacky really figure it out? Did this actually happen?’ Cheeku wondered.

‘I’m just trying to say something to get out of here,’ Blacky whispered to Cheeku, knowing what he was thinking.

Meanwhile, Inspector Chandu carefully examined the glass after hearing what Blacky said.

‘You are right, Blacky! The putty around the glass looks fresh, and there’s a slight smell of turpentine oil coming from it,’ Inspector Chandu said.

‘Did you doubt our investigative skills?’ Cheeku said proudly.

‘But the question is, who stole the diamonds?’ Seth Tarachand asked, puzzled.

‘Who lives in the house next door?’ Inspector Chandu asked. Cheeku and Blacky looked at each other.

‘That’s Baddy’s house,’ Seth Tarachand said.

‘He is the thief !’ Cheeku and Blacky quickly said before Inspector Chandu could say anything.

‘Baddy is the thief?’

‘They are right! The sound of glass breaking would have to reach his house at night, yet Baddy didn’t hear anything. This proves that the thief is Baddy himself !’ Inspector Chandu finished, surprising Seth Tarachand.

‘I hadn’t even thought of this. Anyway, yesterday Baddy was at home all day, and the window of his house is right in front of my window. The thief can be so careless only when he’s certain that no one will see him from the neighbouring house,’ Seth Tarachand slowly said.

‘And if Baddy is the thief, then why would he be afraid of being seen by anyone?’ Cheeku and Blacky quickly added.

Inspector Chandu agreed with them. He then went to Baddy’s house, and, upon searching, found Seth Tarachand’s diamonds. Baddy was arrested.

Once again, Cheeku and Blacky were praised for catching the thief, but only they knew how they had caught him. Either way, it was another feather in their cap, and the two of them didn’t really mind!