It was beautiful. The baker hadn't even noticed Sparhawk because Mira had immediately gotten his attention, and was laughing good-naturedly as he explained to her that flour was not made from flowers.
He casually walked behind the counter as though he were allowed to be behind there, the crouched down and neatly swiped the full money pouch that sat tucked away in the corner of the shelf in the back of the counter. From his pocket he grabbed a folded scrap of parchment, then stood up and tapped the baker's shoulder.
"You dropped this, sir." He interrupted, handing the folded scrap to the baker, who blinked and turned to look at him in confusion.
"Oh. Did I? How strange...Nevermind. Thank you, m'boy." He told Sparhawk, who then returned to the front side of the counter.
"It's my sister's birthday today," He told the baker, moving to stand beside Mira. "So I wanted to get her a pastry to celebrate."
"Ah, what timing! I just finished baking a batch of pastries!" The baker replied.
Already knowing how much the things costed, he dug into his own money pouch and handed over twelve silver coins.
"Ah, so you've been saving up then, eh? Doing a lot of hard work for the Gundersons?"
"Yes sir." Sparhawk nodded. Which was true, he often worked for the old farmers to get a bit of money.
"Good lad. I'll be right back with those pastries." He pocketed the change and walked to the back of the bakery right when another customer walked in. Sparhawk noted this with a feeling of victory. He hadn't seen the customer walk in, so if he noticed that his money was gone, he'd sooner blame the fully grown man that just walked in than two poor kids celebrating a little girl's birthday. This turn of events only made his plan get better and better.
Soon, the baker returned with two warm, sweet, sticky, delicious pastries. "Here you are! Two pastries, and happy birthday!"
"Thank you sir." Sparhawk smiled at the man, then shepherded Mira out the door. When they were out of earshot, he smirked devilishly at her. "Happy birthday, sister."
He planned to give her half the money he stole, but he didn't want to do it out in the open. So he held off on that until they were in a safer place to do that.