Each month, we offer you a chance to read mindfully, to use literature to think about your perceptions and reactions to the world in which we live and work. Through these short texts and accompanying questions, we hope to give you a small taste of Books@Work. Please grab a friend or colleague to read, share and discuss – and send us your thoughts.

Katherine Anne Porter was born in Texas in 1890 and left her home state for New York, where she often depended upon journalism and “hack” writing for financial support even as her literary pursuits gained wide critical acclaim. She is considered one of the most distinguished authors of the twentieth century with insightful novels, short stories, essays and journalism that mused on death, loss and human society.

Porter’s short story “Theft” appears in her collection Flowering Judas and Other Stories, published in 1935. The story features a young woman who reflects upon the events of her night out to try and determine where her missing purse is. As you read “Theft,” consider these questions:

• How do our material possessions – be it a purse, a rug, or a hat – define us in our own minds and in the perceptions of others?
• Is there a difference between losing something and having it stolen from you?
• Have you ever felt lonely even when surrounded by friends and acquaintances?

Theft

By Katherine Anne Porter

She had the purse in her hand when she came in. Standing in the middle of the floor, holding her bathrobe around her and trailing a damp towel in one hand, she surveyed the immediate past and remembered everything clearly. Yes, she had opened the flap and spread it out on the bench after she had dried the purse with her handkerchief.

She had intended to take the Elevated, and naturally she looked in her purse to make certain she had the fare, and was pleased to find forty cents in the coin envelope. She was going to pay her own fare, too, even if Camilo did have the habit of seeing her up the steps and dropping a nickel in the machine before he gave the turnstile a little push and sent her through it with a bow.

Continue reading “Theft” here.

William Glackens, Young Woman in Green, circa 1915, Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, Missouri, [Public Domain] via Wikimedia Commons

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