As tensions reportedly mount within the Wu-Tang Clan, as critics weigh the relative merits of the 8 Diagrams and the Big Doe Rehab, as the reunited Clan prepares for tour, a ninja is terrorizing the streets of Shaolin.

From the New Yorker:

In retrospect, it figures that a serial “ninja burglar” would turn up on Staten Island, a borough whose biggest cultural export, the Wu-Tang Clan, long ago nicknamed the place Shaolin, in honor of kung-fu movies. This particular bandit, who is now thought to have robbed eighteen homes on the island in the past seven months, acquired his honorific in September, when he encountered a Dongan Hills resident named Phil Chiolo while raiding Chiolo’s home. He was dressed all in black, with a black face mask, Chiolo said, and he carried nun-chucks, which he used to club Chiolo in the chest, head, and shins before Chiolo was able to retaliate by stabbing at him with a steak knife.

Meanwhile, at the Shaolin Kung Fu Temple, near the North Shore, Sifu Paula Wong, an instructor, seemed unaware of the burglar and his legend. “We’re not familiar with the ninja, since a ninja is an assassin,” she said. “Our training is more philosophy, with Buddhism and philosophies like Bruce Lee.”