A blindfolded “sleeping dog” in the middle of a circle, a sponge-ball “bone” at their feet, and one player at a time trying to steal it without making a sound. Steal the Bone rewards stealth and patience over speed, which makes it a nice change of pace from the running games.
What you need
A sponge ball or similarly soft object. A blindfold. A group of up to 30 players, forming a circle.
How to play
One player sits in the centre of the circle, blindfolded, with the ball placed beside them. Everyone else, one at a time, tries to creep forward from the edge of the circle and steal the ball without being heard. If the blindfolded player hears movement, they point in the direction they think it came from. If they point correctly at the player currently sneaking, that player is sent back and the next player has a turn. If someone manages to grab the ball and get back to the circle’s edge without being correctly pointed at, they swap places with the blindfolded player and the game starts again.
Safety notes
This needs real quiet and real patience, and it works best as a genuinely silent game, worth asking the whole group to stay still and quiet while someone else is having their turn. The centre area should be flat and free of anything the sneaking player could trip over.
Why it works
The stillness this game demands is exactly its appeal after a run of louder, faster activities, and the tension of trying to move in complete silence, watched by an entire circle, tends to produce some genuinely funny, exaggerated tiptoeing.
