The Missing Tomatoes (A1 Reading Story)

A1 · BEGINNER Reading practice · ~1,400 words · 9-min read

This is a short, easy mystery story for beginners. The sentences are simple. First, read the nine key words. Then read the story. At the end, there is a small quiz to check what you understand.

The story

1 · Mr Sam and his garden

Mr Sam is seventy years old. He lives in a small white house at the end of Green Street. He lives alone. His children live in another city, far away.

Behind the house, there is a garden. A garden is a place near a house where plants and flowers grow. Mr Sam’s garden is not big, but it is beautiful. There are yellow flowers by the wall. There is a little wooden gate. And there are many, many vegetables.

Mr Sam grows carrots. He grows beans. He grows potatoes. But his favourite vegetables are his tomatoes. They are big and red and they smell like summer.

Every morning, Mr Sam gets up at six o’clock. He puts on his old green hat. He makes a cup of coffee. Then he goes into the garden and says, “Good morning, tomatoes!”

Yes, he talks to his tomatoes. He is that kind of man.

Mr Sam works in the garden all morning. He waters the plants. He pulls out the bad grass. He sits on an old chair next to the shed and drinks his coffee. The shed is small and brown, and inside there are many old things: a bicycle, some boxes, and his garden tools.

On Saturdays, Mr Sam cooks. His tomato soup is famous on Green Street. Every summer, he makes a big pot of it, and he gives a bowl to Mrs Rose, his neighbour. “Sam,” she always says, “this soup is a dream.”

Mr Sam also counts his tomatoes. Every morning, he counts them one by one. “One, two, three…” On Monday morning, there are twenty red tomatoes on the plants. Twenty beautiful red tomatoes.

“On Saturday, I pick you all,” he tells them. “And I make my famous tomato soup.”

2 · Something is missing

On Tuesday morning, Mr Sam goes into the garden with his coffee. He counts his tomatoes. “One, two, three…” He stops. He counts again.

Seventeen.

Seventeen tomatoes. But yesterday there are twenty! Three tomatoes are missing. Missing means not there — you cannot find them.

“That is strange,” says Mr Sam. He looks on the ground. No tomatoes. He looks at the gate. The gate is closed. He looks at the wall. The wall is high.

On Wednesday morning, he counts again. Fourteen! Three more tomatoes are missing. Now Mr Sam is not happy. Somebody is taking his tomatoes. There is a thief in his garden! A thief is a person who takes things that are not his or hers.

But who is the thief?

Mr Sam thinks about it all day. Is it a bird? No — birds eat small fruit, not six big tomatoes. Is it Mrs Rose’s cat? No — cats do not eat tomatoes. Is it a fox? Foxes come into gardens at night. But a fox cannot open a gate.

Mr Sam looks at the ground very carefully. Near the tomato plants, the ground is soft and wet. And there, in the soft ground, he sees something: footprints. A footprint is the mark your foot or shoe makes on the ground.

The footprints are small. Very small. They are not from a man. They are not from a fox or a bird. They are from a small shoe.

Mr Sam goes to his neighbour, Mrs Rose. “Somebody is taking my tomatoes at night,” he says. “Do you see anything?”

“No,” says Mrs Rose. “But I hear something. Every night, at about ten o’clock, your gate makes a little noise. Creak. I think it is the wind.”

“The wind does not eat tomatoes,” says Mr Sam. “And the wind does not wear small shoes.”

3 · The night watch

That evening, Mr Sam makes a plan. He does not call the police. The footprints are small, and he is not afraid. But he wants an answer to his question: who is the thief?

At nine o’clock, he puts on his warm coat. He takes his torch. A torch is a small light you hold in your hand. He goes into the dark garden and he hides behind the shed. To hide means to go where nobody can see you.

Mr Sam waits. It is cold. It is quiet. He can see the moon over the wall. He can see his tomato plants, black in the dark.

He waits for a long time. His legs hurt. His nose is cold. “Maybe the thief does not come tonight,” he thinks. “Maybe I am a silly old man, and I am hiding in my own garden for nothing.” A car goes past on the street. A dog barks far away. Then everything is quiet again.

Ten o’clock comes.

Creak.

The gate opens, very slowly. Mr Sam does not move. He watches. A small person comes into the garden. The person is not tall. The person has a school bag. The person walks quietly to the tomato plants and picks one tomato… two tomatoes… three.

Mr Sam stands up. He turns on his torch.

“Good evening,” he says. “Do you like my tomatoes?”

The light shines on the thief. It is a boy! He is about eight years old. He has big brown eyes and an old blue jacket. The tomatoes fall from his hands. He looks at the gate, but he does not run. He starts to cry.

“Please don’t call the police,” the boy says. “Please.”

4 · The answer

Mr Sam looks at the boy. He sees the old jacket. He sees the thin face. He puts down his torch.

“What is your name?” he asks softly.

“Tom,” says the boy. “I live at number four. With my mum.”

“And why do you take my tomatoes, Tom?”

Tom looks at his shoes. “My mum works at night, at the hospital,” he says. “She works very hard, but we do not have much money this month. I am hungry in the evening. Your tomatoes are so red. I am sorry. I am really sorry.”

The garden is quiet. Mr Sam thinks about his big garden and his small dinner table. He thinks about his famous tomato soup. He is only one man. There are always too many vegetables.

“Tom,” he says, “a thief takes things in the dark. But friends share things in the light. To share means to give part of what you have to another person. I have a better idea.”

Tom looks up. “A better idea?”

“Come on Saturday morning. Come through the gate — in the day, not at night! Help me in the garden. Water the plants with me. And every week, you take vegetables home for you and your mum. We grow them together, and we share them together.”

“Really?” says Tom. His eyes are big.

“Really,” says Mr Sam. “But first — do you like tomato soup?”

That Saturday, Tom comes through the gate at nine o’clock — in the day, not at night. He helps Mr Sam all morning. He waters the plants. He learns the names of the vegetables. At twelve o’clock, they sit at the little table in the kitchen, and they eat two big bowls of famous tomato soup.

“This soup is a dream,” says Tom.

“That is what Mrs Rose says too,” laughs Mr Sam.

One evening, Tom’s mum comes to the white house after work. She is tired, but she is smiling. “Thank you, Mr Sam,” she says. “Tom talks about your garden every day. You are very kind to us.” Mr Sam gives her a bag of carrots, beans and tomatoes. “We grow them together,” he says. “So we share them together.”

Now, every Saturday, there are two people in the garden on Green Street. A big person in a green hat, and a small person in a blue jacket. They grow carrots, beans, potatoes and tomatoes. They talk. They laugh. They count the tomatoes together, and no tomatoes are missing.

Tom’s mum has fresh vegetables every week. Mr Sam has a new friend. The small footprints in the garden are not a mystery now. They are a happy thing.

But one morning, Mr Sam opens his gate and stops. There is a small box in front of it. On the box, somebody writes two words: “For you.”

Who is it from? And what is inside the box?

Check your understanding

Read each question. Think about your answer. Then click “Show answer” to check.

Words to remember

Here are the key words again, in new sentences. Say each one out loud.

• garden — My grandmother has a small garden with red flowers.
• grow — We grow potatoes behind our house.
• missing — My blue pen is missing. Where is it?
• thief — The thief takes a bike from the street.
• footprint — I see a big footprint in the snow.
• gate — Please close the gate — the dog is in the garden!
• hide — The children hide behind the door and laugh.
• torch — It is dark. I need my torch to see the stairs.
• share — I have two apples. I share them with my friend.

Talk about it · Write about it

Talk about it: Is Tom a bad boy or a good boy? Why? What do you do when somebody takes your things?

Write about it: Write 5 simple sentences about a garden, a park, or a street you know. What is there? Use there is and there are.

🎉 Well done — you read a whole mystery story in English! You found the thief before Mr Sam did… didn’t you? And now you know nine new words too.

But wait — there is a small box at Mr Sam’s gate. Who is it from? And what is inside? Maybe the next story knows…

Next story: Read another easy A1 story →

About this story: This is an original A1 graded reader (~1,400 words). It uses simple, controlled vocabulary and mostly the present simple tense, so beginners can understand about 98% of the words. Any harder word is explained before the story and used again inside it.

Khamis Maiouf

I’m Khamis Maiouf. English is not my first language – I learned it as an adult in the UK, passed Functional Skills Level 2 in English, qualified in Hairdressing at Level 3, and I’m now studying Business at university. For over five years I’ve taught ESOL classes in my community and tutored students through GCSE English. I write every lesson on this site myself, for the learner I used to be.