Min Thein Kha - Salt Bottle Hnin Maung and the Head and Tail are Safe

Chapter (1)

• A secret letter

One day, my good friend, Sar Pulin Hnin Maung, and I were having a quiet conversation in my office at the Insein Detective Bureau. Ko Hnin Maung is one of the best talkers I have ever met. Because while some talkers are so good at talking without giving others a turn, Ko Hnin Maung is not like that, and has a habit of giving others a turn to speak.

Therefore, whenever I meet Ko Min Maung, I even forget about my beloved wife Tin Tin who was left behind at home. Since he is knowledgeable in all areas, when I talk to Ko Hnin Maung, I gain more knowledge than I ever could before.

I have no reports to write today, and my detective, Mr. Sharpe, is also on his way to the police commissioner's office, so I'm having a conversation with Min Maung. When I hear the eleven-point knock of the doorbell, I realize that we've been talking for exactly two hours. I...

“Aise Ko Hnin Maung, we’ve been talking for two hours now. How about some tea?”

"Okay, Ip, let's go to the coffee shop at the end of the street and drink."

"Isn't the shop around here good?"

"They don't make new tea bags, they just reuse old ones. So it's not very tasty to drink. And the owner's children are also playing in the shop, which is a real eye-catcher."

As we were talking, we got up from our seats and walked out of the office. Audley the policeman said, “Maung Waing Maung has arrived and given Ko Min Maung an envelope.

"The post office just arrived," he said.

Ko Hnin Maung reached out and took the envelope, and as I looked at it, I also looked at it. There was nothing special written on the envelope.

To

Salt bottle snow

CID

Insein

I saw only that. Ko Hnin Maung had not opened the envelope yet, and we continued our conversation to the coffee shop at the Insein intersection. When we arrived at the coffee shop, I had just ordered tea and cakes when I opened the envelope, and inside came a small piece of paper about half an inch wide and 10 inches long.

The paper has writing on both sides, but if you can only read the pages written on one side, the writing on the other side is so complicated that it is impossible to read. The paper is as follows. Both sides are shown for understanding.

The meat is pork, the fruit is mango, and the umbrella is Pathein.

The sound of the gong is heard, the gong is sung.

I read the letter over and over again, but I couldn't make out any meaning. I left out the confusing, unreadable letters on the back, and tried to decipher the letters on the readable side, but I couldn't figure out the meaning.

“The meat is pork, the fruit is mango, the umbrella is pathein, the sago is a tree, the sky is a tree,” is a readable text, but I couldn’t find any deep meaning, so I gave up.

"What will you eat, Aisee Hnin Maung? Is the letter Sanhla or Kyi?"

"It's a timely message with very important news. I can't read what's written yet, I'm still trying to figure it out, IP."

"It's just a coincidence, sending important information in encrypted form makes it difficult to work on time. If you just write it plainly, you'll be done."

"What's wrong, IP? The person who gave the information is also in prison, so they have to use this 'crypto' at the risk of their own lives."

"So you know who wrote this letter."

"I must admit, I've seen this handwriting twice, but it's unmistakable. It must have been written by this person."

“Who is this person?” “I mean, it’s lawyer Aung Kyaw Hla’s handwriting.”

"Isn't lawyer Aung Kyaw Hla a big arm of the great Buddhist scholar U Hla Maung, a KSM graduate, Ko Min?"

“You remember, he wrote that he couldn’t remember his handwriting. I know that he wrote it once, and I will never forget it. IP, this person is not a traitor. To be honest, (KSM) is only U Hla Maung’s pawn because he is rich. His instincts don’t seem to want to do anything wrong. That’s why he gave me this secret information.”

"Yes, it's a secret. Is it easy to reveal?"

"Don't worry about this, Ip, I've read all the cryptic texts written in the world. I've read cryptic texts more times than I recited the (Yammangalam) when I was young. And to solve a riddle like this, it's like taking a cup of boredom medicine for a hundred kyat."

"Come on, I'll continue drinking the anti-anxiety medicine later. For now, I'm running out of tea, so drink up," I said, and Ko Hnin Maung picked up the tea bowl and lifted it.

Then he took out a Camel brand cigarette, lit it, placed Lawyer Aung Kyaw Hla's secret letter on the table, and went into his thinking room.

I also watched Ko Hnin Maung's behavior with a short cigarette filled with a pot of medicine. He recited the mantras with his mouth, like a sly man, and while he recited, he frowned until his eyebrows almost touched, and closed his eyes completely, and came up with various ideas until he finished a cigarette.

He took out another cigarette and, after striking it on the lighter, smiled and said to me, "I get the point."

So I said, "Tell me if you get it." He showed me his hand, lit a cigarette, put it to his lips, and sat facing the road, not looking at me. I didn't understand what he was doing.

Ko Hnin Maung stopped looking at me and just watched the passersby. At that moment, he saw a woman walking towards Insein Market carrying a small Pathein umbrella. Ko Hnin Maung got up and hurriedly went towards the woman. He was seen saying something to her. After a while, the woman handed Ko Hnin Maung the Pathein umbrella she was carrying.

"I'll read it to you, IP, and then write it down."

After saying the above, Ko Hnin Maung wrapped the secret paper around the handle of his umbrella and read it like a cat and a mouse, until the previously unreadable letters became a plain, readable letter.

Go to Theinchaung village, near Ngamoeyikchaung.

Old stone scribe from an ancient house

Save U Ba Tu as soon as possible, they are going to kill him.

After reading the letter, Ko Hnin Maung's face fell and he left. Then he went to the owner's wife, gave her the Pathein hat, and she walked towards me step by step.

“It’s very important news, I think Ko Min Maung Kyat and I will follow it.”

"I don't think I'll be able to do it, IP. They've already killed me by now," Ko Hnin Maung replied in disappointment, then stared at the words (Thein Chaung Village) (Former Secretary of the Stone Office, U Ba Tu) on the back of the envelope.

"Teachers, I'm looking for Aungma."

As soon as the police inspector from Thingangyun Gate, U Pe Khin, got off his motorbike, he greeted us with a kind of accusatory greeting. Then, he looked at the two letters written in front of Ko Hnin Maung and walked away with wide eyes. Not only did he wink, but he also...

"Thein Chaung Village, Former Stonecutter U Ba Tu" "Thein Chaung Village, Former Stonecutter U Ba Tu"

“How come you guys are getting psychics? I came here to talk about this case. U Ba Tu was murdered last night. We didn’t know how to find any clues, so we just asked the CID for help. You guys already know about this case,” U Pe Khin said in the tone of a rowboat man shouting to his friends on a river. Then he rubbed the man’s large, hairless head with both hands.

"The words in the encrypted message that IP and I tried to decipher"

“Is it a secret letter? I received a secret letter from you in advance, telling you that U Ba Tu would be killed. Yes, Ko Min Maung. It only got more confusing when it came to you.”

Saying this, U Pe Khin continued to rub his bald head. U Pe Khin may have had thick hair before. However, it seems that this habit of rubbing his head like this every time he had an idea had led to him becoming completely bald.

“Yes, here is the secret message,” Ko Hnin Maung said, and when he handed the secret message to U Pe Khin, U Pe Khin read the complex secret messages and the beautiful and brilliant messages on the other side: (The meat is pork, the fruit is mango, the umbrella is pathein, the ear is sio, the sky is singing) and rubbed his head. “ Don’t rub your head too much, U Pe Khin, or your hair will grow back.”

"I followed him, but he stopped and shook his head..."

"What kind of code is it, tell me with salt and pepper?"

He spoke in an apologetic tone.

“This type of cipher is the oldest type of cipher. It was used in Europe in military matters around 500 BC. The person who gave the cipher and the person who received it used a stick that was about the same length as the person who gave the cipher. When the person who wrote the cipher wrapped a long piece of paper or parchment around the stick, the length of the stick was the same. Once written, the letters were completely unreadable with one hand. When the person who received the cipher got the cipher, he had to wrap it around the stick to read it. Even though it was hidden like this, if you don’t know the size of the stick when the cipher was originally written, you can’t decipher it. Historians have called this type of cipher (Skytale). | This cipher is one of those types, U Pe Khin.”

"So, yes, what do the words 'meat in pork' and 'fruit in mango' mean, Ko Hnin Maung?" That's right, the person who hid it and I didn't give each other the keys to decipher the cipher beforehand, so we wrote the key to the cipher, which is called a cypher. Meat in pork, fruit in mango is a proverb. Pathein in a hat is not a proverb. So the phrase Pathein in a hat is strange. Once, the phrase 'Sio in Pyinmana' is like a proverb. The phrase 'Sio in Pyinmana' comes from the Pyinmana area.' 'Sai Tay So' is strange again. And the three letters of the cipher are written next to each other. 'So' is written a little bit apart."

“Well, that’s very interesting, keep going, Salt Bottle Snowman.”

"So, when I thought about the strange umbrella, Pathein, and Skytale, I remembered that Skytale refers to a type of code word. So, since Pathein is on the umbrella, I immediately realized that the handle of the Pathein umbrella must be used. When I tried what I thought, I got this answer:

“Oh, come on, Ko Hnin Maung. If you ask me to decipher it, I won’t be able to decipher the secret message until I get my pension. Haha… haha.”

U Pe Khin laughed as he spoke to himself. We laughed too. I ordered tea for U Pe Khin and served it to him, and U Pe Khin finished it in one gulp, and then... "

"Wait a minute, who sent this bird letter?" he asked again.

“It is the handwriting of lawyer U Aung Kyaw Hla.”

“Isn’t lawyer U Aung Kyaw Hla the personal lawyer of the great U Hla Maung?”

"That's true." "Then wouldn't it be a good idea to arrest him and investigate?"

"What will happen if I do this? If I go and do it without permission, I'll get into trouble. Besides, isn't he a law-abiding citizen like us?"

“Ko Hnin Maung, are you saying that U Hla Maung is also involved in this case?”

"Not just in this case. More than half of the crimes committed in Burma are the work of this man. He can change money. Judges, police chiefs, and so on are all in his pocket. And since he has the title of (KSM) given to him by the governor, controlling him is like pulling the tail of a cobra. If you can pull the tail and hit it hard, the cobra will break its joints and die. But if you are half a second late, what is the point of facing death?"

“Wait, what is the degree (KSM) that U Hla Maung has?”

"The full name is 'The Magnificent Golden Swordsman'. He cannot be imprisoned for anything other than rebellion."

"This is not in the law"

“They don’t do what the law says everywhere, but they don’t do it either. Doesn’t the law say that the police should slap a thief who steals a T-shirt? But they did. Doesn’t the law say that if a good man commits a crime, he should be put in the office of the chief of the department instead of being arrested? But they do it just like you do, right?” Ko Min Maung said with a frown.

U Pe Khin, who was very quick with his tongue, was rubbing his big head. "Ko Hnin Maung also took out a cigarette, lit it, and started to sigh.

“One day, I will have to do it according to the law, Hnin Maung,” U Pe Khin said with a loud groan as he rubbed his head.

"Yes, it would be good if we lived long enough until then."

“Does Ko Hnin Maung consider U Hla Maung to be a leader of a criminal gang?”

"It's not an assumption. It's true."

"I think he's a real religious and social person. I've been to his house twice."

“When you left, he welcomed you in the temple, didn’t he?”

"Oh, yes."

"Did you notice the statue of a goddess next to the altar? It's an ancient statue, an oriental work from around 400 BC."

"This is the work of a historian. How could a policeman like me be interested in it, Ko Hnin Maung?"