Michael Butterworth was a pupil at Bessie Street School who stole a week's worth of Ena Sharples' pension after he came across her lost book.
Ena had handed it over to Martha Longhurst to collect the payment for her while she was out, but Martha accidentally dropped it while out shopping. Michael claimed that he had found it in the school playground and was about to hand it in when he got caught up in a fight with another pupil, Arthur Brace. He then stated that he handed it in to teacher Ken Barlow, who soon passed it on to Ena. Upon inspecting the book, she found that the week's money had been claimed. She instantly suspected Michael, who had already established a reputation for fighting and bullying. Len Fairclough had warned his son Stanley from associating with him, saying his father was soft in the head and the child needed his backside smacking. Ken, by contrast, said he needed help and "mercy from the gentle rains from heaven, not a load of old thunderbolts from Mrs Sharples", though he did concede that the lad was big, rough, thick as two short planks and a bully.
Ken refused to hand over Michael's address to Ena, but he called there himself to sort out matters. Michael was subsequently sent by his father to see Ken at No.9 where the teacher took him through the sequence of events. Ena heard that the lad was in the house and hurried round there herself, continuing the questioning. She insisted that Michael come with her to the post office where the counterfoil had been stamped to see what they remembered, but he refused, hanging his head in shame as he admitted cashing in the pension and spending all the money. Ken arranged for the boy to repay it instalments, but it didn't deter Ena from reporting the matter to the police. despite Ken's pleas to give him a chance.
Michael was duly charged and was arraigned to appear in the juvenile court. Ena surprised herself when she worried for the lad but refused to show it to anyone but Martha, even when she heard from Ken that Michael's father had beaten him with the buckle end of his belt. Ena attended the hearing where she was disgusted that he was only put on probation, feeling that the sentence wasn't enough to deter either Michael or other lads in the future from trying out a life of crime.
The story had a sting in the tale for Ena. In the October, the residents of the street celebrated the wedding of Jerry Booth to Myra Dickinson. Ena attended the service and party afterwards, though she was at odds with all the neighbours as she had opposed a children's party being held in the Glad Tidings Mission Hall. Len in particular grew scathing about her to her face as he got drunk. When Ena returned to the Vestry, she found that it had been turned over by a vandal and Len was soon arrested by the police. They suspected him as there was no sign of a forced entry and he had a spare key to carry out repair work on behalf of the mission committee which was now missing. It was only when Jerry returned from honeymoon to discover the state of affairs that he remembered a boy skulking around the yard. As Ken and Ena had already suspected Michael, Len took Jerry to the school where he had a look at all the pupils playing in the yard. He spotted Michael as the lad in question and a schoolmaster made him turn out his pockets, revealing the key and the true vandal. Despite his own innocence being proved, Len felt sorry for the lad for having no chances in life, discovering that by this time his mother had gone off with another man and his father was hitting the bottle every night.