A Little Larceny

My version of Sesame Street provided a unique educational perspective that began with my father's admonition that I should, "Never trust a man who doesn't have a little bit of larceny in him." In my father's classroom I learned how to tell a phony Rolex from a real one at twenty paces, how to grade diamonds by eye and what could be done to "improve" their color. Even arithmetic had a unique bent to it. I learned to count by fives when a shipment of pearls fell off a truck and landed in my father's vault in the basement of the exchange. Somebody had to find out how many there were. Suddenly, one summer, my family landed a diamond in my lap so hot it nearly scorched its way through my hands. And life brought me a girlfriend who was even hotter. With authorities and gangsters in two countries chasing us, we had to find a way to return the stone to its owners without getting ourselves killed.