Bookseller, thief – Bernie Rhodenbarr can't resist the lure or a long lost Kipling poem, even if it is locked inside a millionaire's high security library. So Bernie goes browsing and sure enough he liberates the object in question…but also...
Monsieur le Président de la République,
Monsieur le Premier Ministre,
Monsieur le Président du Sénat,
Monsieur le Président de l'Assemblée nationale,
Messieurs les Membres du Gouvernement,
Messieurs les Députés,
...
Some days you just might be better off dead — at least, that’s what smart-aleck Barry Lee, an amiable schemer with a gift for grift, decides when yet another of his get-rich-quick schemes falls short of perfect and he finds he has only one asset...