“You should know that I am the only one here who speaks your language. Everybody else speaks Tamil. I’ll be acting as your translator for the night.”
Dharmesh was guided to one room, which was bigger than the others. A terror-struck priest sat on the bed in the middle of the room surrounded by more worried people.
Everybody breathed a sigh of relief as they saw Krishna enter with Dharmesh.
“He is Shri Venkateshwara.” Krishna gestured to the priest. “The gem was stolen from under his pillow.”
Dharmesh touched the feet of the elder priest and then turned towards Krishna.
“Ask him how did he get to know that the gem was missing?”
Krishna nodded and turned towards the priest and spoke to him in rapid Tamil. The priest responded in the same language, only much more incomprehensible.
“He says that when he opened his eyes he saw the thief holding the green gem in his hand, his face turned away. Before he could get a better look or shout for help, the thief jumped out of the window and disappeared.”
Dharmesh looked out of the windows. A huge open space in the wall with no grills or panes, only a dirty pair of curtains were present. It was tailor made for a thief to jump in or out of the room.
The saint again spoke Tamil in rapid succession and pointed to the back of his neck.
Krishna nodded. “He says that the thief was one of us because there was a tattoo on the back-side of his neck depicting a picture of the Sun god.”
Krishna and the others turned around and he saw the same tattoo on all of their necks.
“How many of you have this tattoo?”
“Only the seven of us.”
“Was anybody allowed to enter or exit the Aashram?”
“No, this place has been in a temporary lock-down ever since the theft. Only I was allowed to go outside to retrieve you. The guards saw nobody leave after the theft.”
“Was this place searched for the missing gem?”
“Yes, they were searching for the gem when I had gone outside to a PCO to call you. Everyone is certain that the gem has somehow been smuggled outside.”
“Was there anybody else who saw the thief?”
“No.”
Dharmesh thought that was very likely. It was very dark outside the Aashram due to absence of any lights.
“How many people knew where the gem was being kept?”
“Only seven people were even aware of its existence before the theft. Including me.”
“Who all?”
Dharmesh regretted asking the question because before he could complete, Krishna began blurting out lengthy names and gesturing towards the people surrounding the high priest.
Dharmesh cut him off after the third name. There was no way he could remember that. Instead he drew out a simple map on his mind and marked the rooms surrounding the main chambers with numbers instead of names. When he finished, the picture in his mind looked something like this.
