Richardo Keens-Douglas, a talented storyteller, writer, and actor, has based his sixth picture book on a comic fable akin in its sly anarchic spirit and dignified silliness to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Emperor’s New Clothes.

Journeying through the jungle to visit his grandfather, a young boy named Matt finds that the coins he hid under a large stone for safety were stolen as he slept. His cries draw the attention of people in a nearby village, including its chief and constable. Matt, a solemn, responsible boy, just wants his food money returned. But he quickly learns that justice is neither swift nor logical in the adult world. Since the coins were under the stone, the befuddled chief decides there’s only one possible culprit. He orders the constable to arrest the stone and puts it on trial. The chief’s desperate pursuit of justice is mocked at every turn, first by a gaggle of squawking geese, then by the guffaws of the villagers, and most of all by the stone, which maintains a stony silence throughout the chief’s rigorous cross-examination.

Keens-Douglas’s straight-faced narration heightens the comedy while Stéphane Jorische’s sprightly, lushly enveloping watercolour, gouache, and pen-and-ink illustrations splendidly capture the spirit of the gently humorous story.

The conclusion of this charmingly retold tale brings justice in an unexpected, thoroughly satisfying manner for Matt, for the real thief, and even for the stone.