A convenience store is robbed six times in three months. The robberies are usually late at night when there’re no customers in the store.

Rainwater, the night clerk, always calls police and gives a detailed description of the holdup guy. But, there’ve been no arrests.

The shift sergeant says, "There’s something strange about these robberies." Investing a little extra taxpayer money for deputy overtime, Sarge sets up stakeouts at the appropriate time.

The convenience store is less than 100 yards from the interstate. The night clerk always says the robber makes his getaway in a car, never on foot. There are only three possible escape routes: the entrance ramp to the interstate, or traveling north or south on the frontage road in front of Rainwater’s store.

Three weeks after the last robbery Sarge figures the time may be ripe for another robbery. Beginning at 10:00 p.m., Sarge sets up roadblocks along the three possible exit routes. A fourth deputy is stationed in a wooded area between the frontage road and the interstate where he has a clear view of the store front and can watch with night-vision binoculars. All Sarge needs now is an actual robbery. It doesn’t happen.

On the second night of the stakeout, there’s a 911 call from the store. Rainwater says the robber drove off in a white Ford Ranger. As always, Rainwater’s report is loaded with detail.

But to Rainwater’s dismay the night-vision deputy sees absolutely nothing extraordinary. Neither do deputies at the three roadblocks. For 10 minutes there’s been no traffic whatsoever along the frontage road.

After a few hours of intensive early morning discussion, Rainwater does finally admit that he made up all the robberies. They were just figments of Rainwater’s imagination to conceal his desire for cash. Rainwater was a bad thief and an even worse liar. The detective who interviewed Rainwater said he knew from the beginning that Rainwater was lying. How did he know? "Trade secret," says the detective.

Now Rainwater spends his days and nights in the state pen with other guys who’ve also tried to write fiction — but failed.