Something mysterious was happening at Sunrise Public School. Every day, at least one student’s tiffin box would disappear from the classroom during PT period!

“My aloo paratha is gone!” cried Meera on Monday.

“My curd rice vanished!” said Arjun on Tuesday.

“Someone ate my entire lunchbox!” wailed Sneha on Wednesday.

The students were upset. Who was the tiffin thief?

Rahul loved detective stories. He had read every Tinkle comic and watched every episode of CID. “I will solve this mystery!” he announced.

First, Rahul made a list of clues. Clue 1: The tiffins disappeared only during PT period, when the classroom was empty. Clue 2: Only the tastiest tiffins were taken. Clue 3: There were never any footprints or evidence of a person entering.

“No footprints? How is that possible?” wondered Rahul.

On Thursday, Rahul pretended to go for PT but secretly hid behind the cupboard in the classroom. He waited quietly.

For ten minutes, nothing happened. Then… he heard a soft scratching sound. The window was slightly open, and through it came… a monkey!

A clever brown monkey climbed in through the window, went straight to the tiffin shelf, opened a box (it was Priya’s — paneer paratha today!), grabbed the food, and escaped through the window!

“The tiffin thief is a MONKEY!” shouted Rahul, running to tell everyone.

The children and teachers came to see. Sure enough, outside the window, a family of monkeys was happily eating Priya’s paneer paratha!

“Mystery solved!” said the teacher, laughing. “Good detective work, Rahul!”

From that day, the school kept all windows closed during PT period. And Rahul became known as “Detective Rahul” — the boy who solved the Great Tiffin Mystery!

“It wasn’t a student after all,” said Rahul wisely. “We shouldn’t blame anyone without proof. The real thief was someone we never suspected — a monkey!”