A tale of thieves

Once upon a time, there was a gang of thieves.

Though, I should say, it's not quite right to call them a gang, because they fought each other very often and helped each other only scarcely. And they weren't just thieves. They were also businessmen, farmers, fishermen, fathers and many other things besides. But then again, if you've ever met a thief you'll know that they're never just thieves.

These thieves lived on the western end of a northern island. Each had his own land, and each had good access to the sea. For a long time they fought each other over land, and for all we know they would still be fighting each other today, but one day somebody new moved into the eastern end of their island. This new person was bigger and stronger than any one of them, and he started making it very hard for them to travel through his newly acquired land. First he started charging them very high prices to pass through, and then he took to blocking their access altogether. This was very bad for our businessmen-thieves, because their businesses needed spices, silk, and some other precious goods that came through the newcomer's land. So our thieves tried a time or two to force him to let them through, but he was too strong and they were too divided and they had to give up.

One day, one of our thieves had an idea. He was one of the best boat-builders of the lot, so he decided to experiment with a new boat that could go far out into the sea, and to use this boat to try to find a new way to the lands of spices and silk, a way that would not go through the newcomer's land or sea. The others laughed at him when he told them what he wanted to do. He was not the first to think of this, nor would he be the first to try. Nobody knew of another route to the lands of spices and silk, and all the Mappers said the way was too far to make without running out of food and water.

But our enterprising thief got lucky. The mappers were right about the distance but wrong about running out of food and water. When our enterprising thief was near the end of his supplies, he stumbled upon a warm, beautiful, bounteous land, a New Land teeming with unknown peoples, and rich with gold and fertile soil. Sadly for these unknown peoples, their weapons were no match for those of the enterprising thief (because of course our thieves had weapons; they're thieves). When the other thieves heard of this they all turned their attention to that land, and together – well, not really together, since the thieves were still at each others' throats, but you get my meaning – they were able to overrun it.

And overrun it our thieves did! They killed many of those unknown peoples, plundered the wealthiest parts of their land, and set up farms and businesses there. But unlike their enterprises back in their home island which enriched both the thieves and their neighbours (though, in truth, the thieves would've kept all the riches for themselves if they could), these ones in New Land sent as much wealth as they could back to the thieves' home island, and scarcely anybody in New Land benefited.

But then very quickly our thieves ran into a problem. They'd killed too many of the original New Landers, and the remaining ones were very reluctant to work with them, so they had nobody to work on their farms. So they cajoled, swindled, and forced people from another land into New Land, and prevented them from returning when they wanted to. These people they often treated even worse than the original New Landers, but our thieves would just trick or force more of them to come to New Land, and our thieves' farms and businesses prospered.

Some time passed and our thieves decided they'd had enough of stealing from New Land, at least in this way. And this was good for them, because the people of New Land – both the originals and the new ones they'd brought over – had also had enough of their stealing, and they'd acquired strong weapons of their own such that the thieves could no longer be assured of victory if the New Landers took up arms. So the thieves closed up shop and went back home, which they had developed handsomely in the time. For some of the thieves were very good businessmen, and some had connections with scholar-inventors. With the proceeds of their theft they had funded these scholars and made many investments, and their home island had become the envy of the world.

But the New Landers did not think this was just. They had been killed, plundered and enslaved to develop the thieves' home while their own home had barely survived with the scraps from the thieves' tables, and now the thieves just wanted to pack up shop and go home? Many of the New Landers were just happy to see the thieves leave. But some of them insisted that justice be done, that the thieves return their plundered wealth and make up, somehow, for the lives they had ruined. Those who insisted on justice protested loudly, but protestations are rarely enough to enact justice. For while the New Landers had enough weapons to kick the thieves out of New Land, they didn't have enough weapons or boats to bring justice to the thieves' land.

And so they lost that fight, but their hope was not extinguished, for they had not lost the argument.