Our housekeeper came in one morning and found a pair of shoes by the door. They were not our shoes. She assumed that these must belong to a guest.

We frequently have guests so that was a fair assumption. She went into the kitchen and noticed someone in the bathroom off the side of the kitchen, through the frosted glass door. Although we rarely use that bathroom and have never offered that bathroom to our guest she assumed that our guest was using this bathroom.

He stayed in there while she cooked and cleaned the kitchen. At some point she went up to the third floor. She heard the door slam below, she ran down the stairs. She thought it was really odd that our guest did not even greet her.

All of our guests are usually very friendly towards her.

As she ran downstairs she noticed that Tom’s computer was missing. She looked around the house and realized that there were more things missing. When she got to the office on the 2^nd floor she realized that it had been completely tossed.

When she realized that the “guest” must have been a burglar she was terrified.

She phoned the police and they came and did their 3 hours of CSI work.  We realized that besides our computer our camera, money and a good ring was gone.

We understand that it is a sign of the times. As more workers are laid off there are more hungry people in the world.

As foreigners we are perceived to be rich and therefore targets.

The guards in our building don’t deserve the title. The other day I was leaving the building; I overheard a guard telling someone the foreigners live on the 29^th floor, while pointing at us and our apartment.

On the bright side, the burglar had good enough manners to take his shoes off at the door.