The Stolen White Elephant

A royal gift becomes an elaborate police affair when a white elephant disappears from its quarters in Jersey City. The official entrusted with taking the animal from Siam to the British Queen turns to Inspector Blunt in New York. Blunt answers his alarm with solemn questions, detailed measurements, printed notices and a substantial reward. Even the elephant's extraordinary appetite must be recorded with professional precision.

Mark Twain's 1882 short story builds its comedy around the gap between the inspector's confidence and the increasingly confused reports arriving by telegram. Missing bottles, a vanished haystack and holes left by a farmer all become evidence in a search that spreads across several states. The courteous narrator takes the investigation seriously, giving the official language room to make its own absurdity apparent. Readers interested in detective fiction can enjoy this sharp comic treatment of elaborate procedures and overconfident deductions.