Review: A wealthy woman shops in a store that caters to wealth. She takes an ash tray because she bet herself she could steal something. She is caught. Her well-tailored gloves symbolize her wealth. The manager and the detective threaten her with exposure. They play a cat and mouse game to see if they can destroy her confidence. Finally, they force her, under a threat to call her husband, to donate 500 francs to an orphanage and purchase the ash tray and take it with her.
As she signs the necessary papers, she lays the gloves aside. Forgets them as she leaves. The detective takes them and puts them in his pocket. She returns, looking for the gloves. She knows that someone has taken them. Morally, they are no better than she. She leaves, empty-handed, her dignity intact.
Fifty Great European Short Stories. Ed. By Edward and Elizabeth Huberman. New York: Bantam Books. 1971.
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