Cugel's Saga

You inherit a process where the last operator was skimming: inspect the instruments (forms, scripts, access rights) before you interview anyone.

Cugel invents nothing: he inspects Weamish's wheeled carrier, finds the peg that releases its pivoting false top (real cases below, mud-filled decoys on top), and reruns the same theft on the next shipment. Systems confess through their tools faster than through their people.

A vendor's invoice doesn't add up and you can mention the client or auditor who will eventually review those costs.

When Twango pads Cugel's account with illegible invoices, Cugel only wonders aloud, "from sheer idle curiosity, shall I put the question to Master Soldinck?" — and the "misplaced decimal" turns up at once. The threat of inspection does the work; the leverage is borrowed and never spent.

Reviewing a custody chain (cash, inventory, release approvals): trace the asset through every unobserved transit segment, not just the signed checkpoints.

Cugel wraps the shipment in wax seals, strapped cases and a set procession, then lets the false-top carrier work in the one unwatched stretch of corridor. Visible controls attract attention; the loss happens in the handoffs between them.

You can connect a supplier and a buyer who can't find each other: publish your margin before either side commits.

Cugel tells Fuscule "I am Master Soldinck" and tells Soldinck "I am Fuscule," pocketing the difference on the worm deal — which works only because each side verifies its own half and nobody checks the middle. Brokerage uses the same mechanics; disclosure is the whole difference.

Carrying one high-value item through a crowded, theft-prone place where a locked case would mark you as the target.

Cugel wires the Pectoral Sky-break Spatterlight to his hat, where it seems "only a hat-clasp": searchers hunt for hidden treasure, and every lockbox or false bottom tells them where to dig. An object in plain, mundane use gives them nothing to pattern-match.