The second thief promised to pay the first thief the three florins on the coming weekend.
The second thief had still not learnt his lesson and the coming weekend, he decided to try and fool the other thief.
This time the second thief asked his wife to tell the same lie about his death and to be on the safe side the second thief hid himself in a nearby underground crypt.
The first thief was very clever and looking at the fake tears of the second thief’s wife the first thief wondered where the second thief would hide. The first thief realized that the second thief would not hide anywhere in the house after his first two misadventures.
Looking around in a matter of an hour the first thief came into the crypt.
The first thief was looking around searching for the other man and that was when disaster struck.
A band of robbers had decided to rob all the riches hidden in the crypt at that particular time. The robbers broke into the crypt violently. Naturally the robbers had no reason to believe that there would be anybody inside the crypt who would hear them or raise any alarm.
The two thieves hid themselves trying to make sure that they were not seen by the violent band of robbers.
The robbers plundered the entire crypt and they had got plenty of riches that they had gathered in the centre of the crypt.
The robbers were about to divide the riches among them when the second thief had an idea.
In a raspy voice the second thief shouted. “Clear out of this area or the dead will rise from the coffins and the statues will come from the walls and you will be driven out of here more dead than alive!”
The robbers did not expect this and they were so terrified that they ran from the crypt leaving behind all the riches that they had collected.
After this the two thieves took the riches and divided them among themselves and lived even more richly than before.
It is still unknown whether the second thief ever gave the first thief the three florins that started all this.
Adapted from the Andrew Lang’s Fairy Tales
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