The tiny creature sat on the edge of the shop’s awning, swinging its little legs to and fro.
There were very few people about and the last of the shoppers were heading off to cars and buses. It had always enjoyed watching the town folk go about their business. Being early evening, with very few lights still on along the shopping parade, there wasn’t much chance of it being spotted. It, and its kind, had always had a bad reputation. The general view was that it was grotesquely ugly, and there maybe some truth in that, and it was thought to be quite evil when it came to humans. This is generally true.
This particular creature had been watching the old tramp across the street. He was sitting with his back against the wall of a building with his cap in front of him. He’d been there all day, asking passers-by for any loose change as they made their way to the nearby bus stop. He hadn’t done well. It continued to watch as a ruffian strolled along sucking on a sweet. He was very rude to the beggar and after kicking his cap he dropped his wrapper in it. Then, seeing his bus, he ran off and jumped on it just before it moved away. The beggar watched the bus go until it was out of sight.
When he looked back down, he found several bank notes of large denominations in his cap. Looking around, he instantly stuffed everything into his pockets, stood up, made his way to the stop and waited for the next bus.
It wasn’t until the lout got home that he found his wallet was empty. Well, not completely. He did find a sweet wrapper.
Goblins are generally malicious toward people.
But not always…