The day I tried to con the tooth fairy

Good afternoon, boys and girls.
I’m going to tell you the story of a naughty boy who tried to pull a trick on the tooth fairy. Do you think that’s possible? That’s what you’re going to find out.
Are you sitting comfortably?
Then I’ll begin.

Once upon a time, many years ago, there were two small boys who were brothers.
The older boy was good, most of the time, but sometimes his halo slipped.
One day, these boys both lost a tooth.
That is (to avoid confusion) they lost one tooth each.
So they put their teeth under their separate pillows in their separate bedrooms, both hoping to get a sixpence from the tooth fairy.

Now sixpence was a lot of money, in those days. You could buy a Picnic bar (“Six good things for sixpence”) or six liquorice sticks, or twelve gobstoppers from the jar in Mr. Convine’s shop.
The older boy thought he could see a way of getting two sixpences instead of one.
So he crept into his brother’s bedroom, took away the tooth that he found there, and placed it under his own pillow instead.

But now he could foresee a difficulty.
If there was no sixpence under the other pillow next morning, the Little Precious would notice that something was wrong and would start asking questions. Much trouble could be expected.
So the resourceful little boy returned to the other bedroom and replaced the missing tooth with a sixpence from his own pocket.
So the L.P. would find a sixpence and suspect nothing, while he himself would get two sixpences. Mission accomplished.

(Anyone who studies this transaction carefully may be able to understand why the little boy did not grow up to become an accountant or an economist).

The next day, the little boy could hear their mother in the next bedroom, warmly congratulating the brother on finding the sixpence under his pillow.
“Ah yes, that reminds me…”
So I looked under my own pillow. And what did I find?
I found two teeth.

Now any genuine tooth fairy, coming in from outside, would have been looking under pillows and taking the evidence at face value. Teeth found and collected, money left in exchange.
Only somebody with inside information could have known that the evidence was misleading.
And our mother was clearly the person with the best inside information.
She didn’t even come in to find out what had happened in my own case. Which was tactful, but it gave away the fact that she knew the answer already.
Her secret role in the operation had been exposed.
In short, this experience had the side-effect of demolishing the tooth fairy.