Ruslan

He was just squatting by the tomatoes, weeding, when he heard someone rummaging around in the neighboring garden. There's a passage from Ruslan's garden to yours. Ruslan had long ago agreed with your mother to make a small passage between the fence. He had a pit with water on his property where he could collect water for irrigation, but you didn't, and he did it to help you out. So he went up to the fence and looked in. He saw you picking peas, strawberries, sorrel, raspberries, cucumbers, and tomatoes in the neighboring plot. He immediately thought you were a thief, because neither your mother nor your grandmother had ever told him about you.

He knows your grandmother and mother, but he never knew about you, and when we first met, he saw you picking peas and strawberries, and he thought you were a juvenile thief.