Last weekend when I was watching a movie, I noticed a minor detail that made me envy people in many Western countries: when they come out of their cars, they do not bother locking them.

It did not only expose to me the over-rated value we attach to these toys, but also the fact that our security is yet to be wholesome. Things need not remain like this for long: we may not easily learn how to appreciate real value, but we can get rid of any form of theft.

I recall when there was only one thief in the whole of Rwanda! He was known as Mitwe, and he was licensed to steal by none other than the king in the 1940s/1950s, when Rwanda was a semi-colony/semi-monarchy.

He had earned that license one time when he picked the king’s wallet so effortlessly, duping the retinue of bodyguards. The king was mesmerised by the man’s audacity and adeptness and allowed him to steal whatever he wanted!

In turn, Mitwe opted for cattle rustling, because cattle ownership represented the country’s wealth, as monetary economics had not yet made its appearance in the country.

If he found you on your guard and failed to rob you, well and good. However, if he managed to hoodwink you and steal your herd, too bad.

You could only bide your time and steal it back, if equally adroit. Many times nobody was, and he remained unchallenged with his booty intact.

That, however, was for as long as the monarch continued to reign, and for as long as his subjects continued to respect his word.

Otherwise, everybody knew where to find Mitwe, and how to get back their property, but tolerated his awkward existence in loyalty to the royal decree. No other Munyarwanda could stoop so low as to steal anything.

That’s why, back then, nobody needed to surround themselves with two-metre-high stone walls and barricade themselves inside impregnable compounds. In fact, nobody needed any door, let alone a five-cm-thick, metallic one.

People depended solely on their personal vigilance and social instinct to evade beasts of prey, the only existing danger at that time.

Their social instinct served them in the sense that if one person was attacked and shouted for help, everybody would rush to help them.

Even then, only two animals posed any danger: the hyena to humans, the lion to domestic animals. Being ugly, a hyena is shy and is rarely sighted even in any of our national parks. However, it is so cunning that it will fool you, even at your most alert.

Say you are in your house at night, in the process of dozing off. You hear laughter in the vicinity and snuggle even more comfortably in your grass bed, in the assured knowledge that there are people around and you are therefore in no danger.

A person who knows the ways of the hyena does not make that mistake. That laughter will actually be from hyenas, which will be covering up for one of their own.

Meanwhile, this one will stealthily creep into your house and pick you whole, in parts or pick your sleeping mat if she can’t get you, and run for it!

As for Mr. Lion, he knows that when he urinates around the kraal, no animal will dare go out. That way, he can comfortably enter and take his pick.

Only the cattle keeper can save his herd, by shouting for help and summoning all the spears and arrows available. With such personal vigilance and social instinct, we can get rid of theft today.

Contact: ingina2@yahoo.co.uk