Stolen Words

I’m going to tell you the story of a boy who loved words. He loved the way the letters looked on the page. The way they sounded when they were spoken. But he was a poor boy. He never could afford to learn how to write. He couldn’t make words of his own. So he decided to became the word thief.

He started out small. Stealing only letters. He first stole - b-caus- h- saw it was oft-n us-d so th-r-for- h- should hav- it as his own. Th-n h- stol- th- l-tt-r - b-caus- h- lik-d th- way it look-d. Th-- - for simi-ar r-aso-s. But h- -v--tua--y got bor-d of just st-a-i-g --tt-rs. H- wa-t-d mor- tha- that. So h- b-ga- to st-a- who-- words. Words such as --- a-d --- disapp-ar-d. --- po-ic- w-r- g-tti-g worri-d at this poi-t. Th-y w-r- havi-g a difficu-t tim- catchi-g him. --- po-ic- wou-d thi-k that th-y had fi-a--y fou-d him o--y to hav- him s-ip away o-c- agai-. -v-ryo-- was -ooki-g for this boy. But h- was good at hidi-g. H- co-ti-u-d to st-a- words. Words such as ------ disapp-ar-d which o--y mad- --- ------ rath-r co-fus-d. Th-- --- words ---- --- ----- va-ish-d which mad- it hard for p-op-- to ta-k about --- boy. S-ow-y mor- --- mor- ----s va-ish-d. P-op-- got a-gry. Th-y w-r- --rag-d. Sp-aki-g --- writi-g w-r- v-ry difficu-t -ow. As mor- --- ---- ----s va-ish-d --- hard-r ------ s-arch-d. --- h- was -owh-r- to b- fou-d. For --- ---- ----- had hidd-- hims--f w---. -o o-- -v-r thought -- s-arch --- ------- -------- for --- ---. Most ------ ----’- -v-- k-ow --- ------- had a --------. So h- -------- ----- a-d sto-- ----- u-ti- h- had sto--- ----- ---- ---. --- ----- --- ----------. ------- ------- ---- --- -- ----- ---- -- --- -- ---- -----. --- --- ---- ---- ---. ----- --- ----- ---- -- --- ------ -- --- --- ----- -- --- ------. -- --- -- ---- ---- -- -- ---- ---- ----. So he gave the world back it’s words. The written language had returned. People could talk and write once again. The boy ran off after he returned words to the world. Nobody knows where he is now or what he is doing. But he will always be remembered as the Word Thief who made the entire world shut up.

The story without vanishing words:

I’m going to tell you the story of a boy who loved words. He loved the way the letters looked on the page. The way they sounded when they were spoken. But he was a poor boy. He never could afford to learn how to write. He couldn’t make words of his own. So he decided to became the word thief.

He started out small. Stealing only letters. He first stole E because he saw it was often used so therefore he should have it as his own. Then he stole the letter N because he liked the way it looked. Then L for similar reasons. But he eventually got bored of just stealing letters. He wanted more than that. So he began to steal whole words. Words such as THE and AND disappeared. The police were getting worried at this point. They were having a difficult time catching him. The police would think that they had finally found him only to have him slip away once again. Everyone was looking for this boy. But he was good at hiding. He continued to steal words. Words such as POLICE disappeared which only made the POLICE rather confused. Then the words WORD and THIEF vanished which made it hard for people to talk about the boy. Slowly more and more words vanished. People got angry. They were enraged. Speaking and writing were very difficult now. As more and more words vanished the harder people searched. But he was nowhere to be found. For the word thief had hidden himself well. No one ever thought to search the library basement for the boy. Most people didn’t even know the library had a basement. So he remained there and stole words until he had stolen every last one. The world was speechless. Mostly because they had no words left to say or even write. The boy kept them all. Until one night when he got bored of all the words he had stolen. He had no idea what to do with them all. So he gave the world back it’s words. The written language had returned. People could talk and write once again. The boy ran off after he returned words to the world. Nobody knows where he is now or what he is doing. But he will always be remembered as the Word Thief who made the entire world shut up.