“But how would we have found out that you were looking after this van for us?” he asked sarcastically. “Perhaps you left a note that we missed?”

The man shrugged. “I do not want to discuss this with you,” he said. “Please take that van away. It is cluttering up our yard.”

Mr Polopetsi stared at the other man, struggling with his indignation. “Now listen to me, Rra,” he said. “You listen very carefully. You have made a very bad mistake in taking that van. A very bad mistake.”

The man laughed. “Oh yes?” he said. “Let me think now. Does it belong to the President? Or maybe it belongs to Ian Khama or the Chief Justice or somebody just as important! What a bad mistake I have made!”

Mr Polopetsi shook his head. “That van belongs to nobody like that,” he said quietly. “That van belongs to Mma Ramotswe, who is a senior detective in Gaborone. You have heard of the CID, Rra? You know about detectives? Detectives are plain-clothes senior policemen. You do know that, Rra?”

Mr Polopetsi saw that his words were having the desired effect. The attitude of the other man now changed, and he was no longer off-hand.

“I’m telling the truth, Rra,” he whined. “I was just trying to look after that van. I am not a thief. Believe me, Rra. It is true.”

Mr Polopetsi knew that it was not in the slightest bit true, but now he changed tack.

“I am prepared to forget all about this,” he said. “You just return this van to the main road up there—you get your donkeys out—and then we shall arrange for a tow truck to come out.”

The man frowned. “All the way up to the main road? That will take a long time.”

“I’m sure that you have plenty of time,” said Mr Polopetsi. “That is, unless you want to spend some of that time in prison.”

The man said nothing. Then he turned round and called out to the boy who had been watching from afar. “Get the donkeys,” he shouted. “The van is going up to the main road.”

Mr Polopetsi smiled. “And there’s another thing,” he said. “The detective—the chief detective, I should call her—has had her time wasted by having to come out to look for her van and then finding it gone. I see that you have grown some very good pumpkins down here. I suggest that you put four of your best pumpkins into the back of the van. That will make up for her wasted time.”