The Strawberry Thief

Nina is spending the summer with her grandpa, Joe. He lives on a farm, and he has a big garden with sweet red strawberries.

Every morning, Grandpa Joe picks strawberries for breakfast. But this week, there is a problem.

"Somebody is eating my strawberries," Grandpa says. "Every night, I lose about twenty."

"Don't worry, Grandpa," Nina says. "I love mysteries. I can catch the thief."

That night, Nina is sitting at her bedroom window with a flashlight. The garden is dark and quiet.

At midnight, she hears a noise. Something is moving in the strawberries!

Nina points the flashlight at the garden. Now she can see two small, bright eyes. Then she sees a gray animal with a black mask around its eyes. It is a raccoon! And behind it, there are three baby raccoons.

The raccoons are eating the strawberries, and they look very happy.

Nina runs to Grandpa's room. "Grandpa, wake up! Come and see!"

Grandpa comes to the window. He looks at the raccoon family and starts to laugh.

"So these are my thieves," he says. "They're very cute, but they're very hungry too!"

"Please don't be angry with them," Nina says.

"I'm not angry," Grandpa says. "We have a lot of strawberries. Let's share."

From then on, Nina and Grandpa pick strawberries for the house every afternoon. And every night, they leave one small corner of the garden for the raccoon family.