Pickpocket's Pickpocket

Like most hunters of skill and experience, tiny, deft-fingered Police Inspector Shimpachi Utsugi recalls his triumphs with nostalgic respect for his quarry. "In the old days," says Utsugi of the time when he first joined the imperial police force, "Japan's pickpockets were proud professional men who would never stoop to employ such tactics as cutting garments with a knife." They plied their trade with stealth, skill and subtlety, and to combat them, the young detective matched skill with skill and stealth with stealth. He soon became as good a pickpocket as the pickpockets. On busy days, like those in the annual flower-viewing season, when the public wandered among spring blossoms, careless of material treasures, Utsugi handled minor felonies by simply picking the pockets of the thieves and returning the loot unnoticed to the pockets of the victims.

Sometimes Utsugi found it necessary to introduce the sordid business of jail. At one flower-viewing he nabbed a thief who had filched a pair of ladies' bloomers, and hauled the miscreant off to headquarters. All in all, he captured close to 3,000 Nip dips, including the acknowledged master of them all, Ito Tamotsu. These incidents were usually conducted in a spirit of professional courtesy. "Ah, Tamotsu," said Utsugi when he copped the notorious Ito with his hand in an alien pocket for perhaps the 19th time, "I have caught you once again." "So you have," acknowledged Tamotsu with a low bow. "So you have. So sorry to be of trouble."

Last week, at 82, Pickpocket Tamotsu was back in the streets of Tokyo, presumably still plying his trade, but his old adversary was no longer on his track. After 40 years on the force, 68-year-old Inspector Utsugi had retired. "I shall probably meet Tamotsu again one day," he sighed, "and I shall say: 'Are you behaving yourself?' He will answer: 'Ah, yes, I am just taking the air.'"

Utsugi smiled and added a little sadly: "And I shall believe him."

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