Feast of Peas

Every morning, Jiva works in his garden until the sun turns as red as a bride’s sari. Observed by his friend Ruvji, Jiva plants peas and beans, potatoes and tomatoes, eggplants and okra in his vegetable patch, and anticipates a delicious meal of “plump peas, sweet peas, lined-up-in-the-shell peas.”

But each time Jiva is ready to pick those delicious peas for his feast, he finds that they’re already gone. And not a single precaution he takes—a fence, a scarecrow—prevents the next theft. Who or what is stealing Jiva’s delicious peas?