Thein Pe Myint (9)

The following text and translation covers the page 9 of Thein Pe Myint's short story "ငွေစိန် လှေလှော်ရင်း တက်ကျိုးခြင်း", which I have scanned from page 337 of "ဝတ္ထုတိုပေါင်းချုပ်သစ်" [A new collection of short stories].

Vocabulary:

ကျက်စား ။ frequent (a certain place); inhabit
ခါးပိုက်နှိုက် ။ to pick (sb's) pocket; a pick-pocket.
ဂိုဏ်း ။ group; sect; gang (see here)
ဟန့် ။ to prevent or stop someone from doing or saying sth.
အငြိုး ။ a grudge
အလစ်သမား ။ snatcher
ခိုးထုတ် ။ to smuggle out
အပထား ။ to let sth alone; leave aside.
ကုတ်ခြစ် ။ to scratch

Translation:

She said that her husband was a small-scale market seller. In the neighbourhood of Theingyi Market a gang of pick-pockets that usually resided there thought that her husband often prevented their livelihood and so bore a grudge against him. On one occasion they snatched a woman's hand-bag containing money and gold and put it into a Shan shoulder bag and brought it to her husband.

[The thief] said, "Keep this Shan shoulder bag for a moment," and after handing it over to him the thief was arrested. And her husband who had stored the smuggled goods was also arrested.

Without extensively discussing the goings and comings of the case, knowing only as much as that, I could deduct the fee for the case and I asked her,

"We lawyers leave aside whether it is true or not and from the side of the client work hard to win or have a satisfactory outcome."

"I depend on you barrister."

"Hey, depending on me in not important. Whether you can pay the requested fee or not is important. As you know, we barristers are expensive."

"I know barrister, sir. Barrister, sir, if you follow [this case]​, my husband will get insurance. I came because I knew that he would be freed."

"How much is your husband's daily income?"

"It's five or six kyat."

"Are you still working? [Are you] with children?"

"I don't have children."

"Yeah, I didn't think you had children. And work?"

"I work when I have work. As for now I'm not able to do any work barrister, sir. I'm selling things for him, and I have to cook."

"Oh, if that's the case, then I don't think that you'll be able to pay the requested fee. Go to see the second level or third level lawyers."

"Because it is how much barrister, sir?"

While considering the question and scratching my neck with my hand...