That is not to say it was impossible, as in her time she had witnessed a number of marked changes in attitude so profound, in fact, as to be quite astonishing. There was a man in northern Botswana, for instance, who was a known cattle thief; and yet while he was visiting a relative up near Kasane, he had come under the influence of a charismatic preacher and had been baptised in the waters of the Zambezi River. The change in that man had been so remarkable that there was talk of its being attributable to the special qualities of the Zambezi River. People said that as far as washing away sin was concerned, there was nothing to beat Zambezi water and that the religious zeal of those immersed in lesser waters—the Notwane River, to name just one river readily on hand for baptism ceremonies—was far less impressive than those of Zambezi converts. Of course it would be difficult to measure something as elusive as inner virtue, but in the case of this man there had certainly been a dramatic change. Far from stealing the cattle of others, he now actively sought out those that had been stolen, identified the thieves, and then reported the matter to the owners and the authorities. In all of this he was conspicuously successful, owing to his intimate knowledge of the ways of cattle thieves, his having been one in the first place. Set a thief to catch a thief: Mma Makutsi had read that somewhere, and it had struck her as containing a valuable insight—almost worthy of elevation into one of Clovis Andersen’s famous rules in The Principles of Private Detection.

Mma Makutsi did not imagine that Mr. Clarkson Putumelo would change, and she therefore reconciled herself to having to watch the building of the house from a distance, making only irregular visits to the site. She had full confidence in Phuti, though, as she took the view that if you could manage a large furniture store, as Phuti did so successfully, then you could manage just about anything. She had nonetheless been careful to explain to Phuti exactly what she wanted in the kitchen. That would be her domain, and she wanted everything to be perfect. “The fridge,” she said, “must not be too close to the door, or you will find that you cannot have the kitchen door open at the same time as you have the fridge door open.”

“Very wise,” said Phuti. “I would never have thought of that.”