A ninja bandit is loose in your city. Take our advice and you should successfully detain the vigilante.

Understand your ninja. Though each ninja is masked and sublimates his identity to a collective guild, each ninja is different. One ninja might steal for vigilante justice, while another might steal for vigilante justice and to defend the honor of his master.

Hire an even stealthier ninja to capture the original ninja. This tactic should be only considered as a last resort as most ninjas are loyal to their guild and master before anything else. You wouldn’t want to hire a third supremely stealthy ninja with an even greater chance of awakening to his betrayal of the ninja order. One of the eight virtues of the Samurai is “absolute loyalty to one’s superior” punishable by seppuku, so don’t expect any favors.

Hire a pirate. In the realm of villain folklore, a pirate compares equally to a ninja in status though their respective tactics are diametrically opposed. Whereas a ninja relies on stealth and discipline, the pirate is comprised of equal parts swashbuckling and bravado. Perhaps like love, fugitive ninja capturing is about opposite forces attracting and one catching the other.

Lastly, whoever does end up catching the ninja would be best served keeping one simple rule in mind: do not catch the ninja.

In all likelihood the ninja will just escape prison and once out, will not rest until enacting the vengeance due to his captor. In the event that the state listens to my recommendations on the safe detainment of a ninja bandit (a follow up piece that will run next week) and ties anchors to the ninja extremities before locking him in a small trunk, the vengeance debt will be passed down to the ninja’s progeny. This fate could be even worse.