Nick Sneak

        Nick Sneak was a burglar, and what he most liked to do was steal jewels. He had heard that the mighty wizard Rizard owned a beautiful, magical diamond. "I must have that diamond," Nick Sneak told himself.
        And so, one dark and secret night, Nick Sneak crept up to the house of the mighty wizard Rizard. In the garden, he saw some bunny rabbits, nibbling grass and flopping their ears.
        "Those are probably magic rabbits," he thought to himself. "I'd better sneak past them, or they'll eat me."
        So Nick Sneak climbed a tree and clambered along a branch overhanging the garden. The bunnies all hopped up at him, squeaking loudly, but he managed to keep himself clear. At the end of the branch, he jumped down, through an open window.
        "This looks like the kitchen," thought Nick Sneak. "I'll have to be cunning here. I expect the spoons are all full of magic and will grow to twice my height and beat me about the head if I make too much noise." So he took off his hat, sat on it, and slid himself across the floor, very quietly.
        Nick was very careful in the other rooms, too. He didn't touch the chairs that might have chased him if he had done, and he avoided looking at the wallpaper that could have been magic and smothered him alive. He always kept alert and wary, looking for traps, for he knew that the wizard Rizard was both tricky and clever.
        Soon, he reached the stairs that led to the wizard Rizard's tower. He went up very cautiously, as he had heard of steps that turned into saws if they were trodden on be people they didn't know. At the top, finally, he found the wizard Rizard's bedroom.
        "This is where the magical diamond will be," he decided. And, sure enough, when he looked under the pillow on the bed, there it was.
        "That was easy," he laughed, picking up the magical diamond.
        The next thing he knew, he'd turned into a rabbit.
        The wizard Rizard appeared from nowhere, and made Nick Sneak let go of the magical diamond. Then, he put him outside in the garden with all the other burglars who had tried to steal the jewel.

So

Don't touch anything magical unless either: a) you know exactly what it does, or b) you want to be a rabbit.

Illustration by Roy Bartle
Image size: approx. 38K.