My maid stole her compatriot's mobile phone.

One day, she left her rope of pearls on the dining table as soon as she got home from a party. She intended to keep it rightaway, but was distracted by a phone call. And when her marathon phone session finally ended she had forgotten about her pearl necklace. The next morning she did not seem to remember either. And it was only much later, when she was at work that she suddenly remembered. She called home and asked the maid to keep it for her. "What necklace, ma'am?" her maid asked.

So she naturally suspected her maid. Only a month earlier, she had lost a ring, not so expensive. The maid denied taking it. Poh Choo ransacked her room and went through her belongings but found nothing. Convinced that only the maid could have taken it, she called the police. Surely the sight of a police officer would shake her up and make her own up but she steadfastly denied taking the ring. The police officer could find no reason to take her into custody, but nevertheless advised Poh Choo to send her home. The next day, however, Poh Choo felt sorry for her. After all, the ring was a cheap one and maybe she had lost it while washing her hands at her place of work. Rings have been known to slip off the finger when you use too much soap to wash your hands. That was last month.

Now, it was a pearl necklace. It would cost her a small fortune to replace it and hubby would surely get mad with her for being so careless. The necklace was, after all, his present to her when they were courting. How could she!

Poh Choo painfully recalled one conversation she had with a taxi driver who told her of the tricks some maids played on their employers. Maid X would steal her employer's Gucci handbag and trade with her friend Maid Y for a pair of Levi jeans. So she looked for some clues, perhaps an expensive watch hidden somewhere? Or a camera in exchange for the necklace? Bingo! She did find a watch her maid could never afford. Again she summoned the police and again the officer could not prevail and again the officer advised Poh Choo to send her home. "I told you so!" he reminded her.

But Poh Choo was lucky this time! After she had sent her maid home, she happened to drop her spectacle case behind her chest of drawers. So she moved it and reached out to pick it up. As she did so, she saw the necklace.

Poh Choo wondered if the maid was just too smart to hide the loot in her own room. The space behind the chest of drawers was a good place. The cabinet had not been moved for years or had not been since her maid went started working there. Perhaps the maid had not had time to make a good trade. Of course since Poh Choo, having lost a ring before, was therefore more suspicious and quick to act. Did she in this way she pre-empt any trade her maid might have planned, she wondered.

On the other hand, Helen had no reason to suspect her maid aptly named Perfecion. Only twenty years old when she began working for Helen only two years earlier, Perfecion was the perfect maid. She was a college graduate and spoke English fluently. She was not only a maid (being really a cook, cleaner, lavenderia, painter and gardener all in one) she was a tutor as well to the three children in her care. She was so eager to please and so eager to learn. When Helen sent her for cooking classes at the Community Club, Perfecion learnt her lessons well and soon she was baking cakes almost on par with the offerings at Bengawan Solo cake shop a short distance away. She was not only efficient, but charming and completely honest. Helen never missed so much as a hair pin.

Well, as it turned out, all good things must sadly come to an end. Perfecion would not contract for two more years. Her engineer fiance had gone home from Saudi Arabia and they were going to get married.

Before she went home, she decided to bake one of her Bengawan Solo-inspired durian-flavoured cakes which she assured Helen was not available in Manila. Her fiance had acquired a taste for durian while working in Singapore previously and she would like to give him a surprise when he showed up at the airport. Helen thought it was so romantic and endorsed her idea.

However, the next morning, Perfecion was in such a rush. The excitement of seeing her long-absent fiance gave her a sleepless night. She counted sheep the whole night long and only just managed to doze off in the wee hours. So when she woke up, she only had time to change and rush off to the airport. When they approached Bengawan Solo cake shop on the way to the airport, she panicked, for she suddenly realized that she had forgotten her precious durian cake!

Helen was so sweet. She calmed Perfecion down. Since she would miss her flight if they went home for the cake, Helen stopped by at Bengawan Solo and picked the handsomest of the durian cakes on display and gave it to Perfecion, in exchange for what the latter had left behind. Such is the high regard Helen had for Perfecion. She gave her a better cake in exchange for the one she left behind.

When Perfecion had been checked in, they said their goodbyes and soon she faded into the distance as she walked sadly towards the waiting room. Was she starting to miss the family? Meanwhile Helen and her children who had accompanied her to the airport were unusually quiet. They are already missing their perfect maid.

When they reached home, they could not wait to dig into Perfecion's accidental farewell present. The durian cake was mouthwateringly delicious. But wait a minute, Perfecion must be slipping! The excitement of going home to meet her dream man had made her careless: she had left some paper clip or a small coin or something equally hard in the cake mix. Helen bit on a pebble or a key ring or something. So she carefully took it out of her mouth to see what it was. "Oops! How did her cornflower blue sapphire get in there?" she wondered out loud. Just then her children one by one chewed on something hard, too.

Perfecion was not so perfect after all. She had so carelessly allowed so many metal things into the cake: a yellow ring with clear transparent stones, a cornflower blue stone set in a yellow ring, a pigeon blood clear stone set in a pendant, a yellow bangle, yellow cuff links, etc., etc.