Then one day one of the thieves remembered that the other had three of his florins with him. Not willing to give it up, the thief went to another man and asked for his share.
The other man promised to give the thief his share the coming weekend.
When the first thief went to the other man's house to take his money the first thief was shocked. The second thief’s wife was teary and she pointed at a bed behind her. The second thief lay stiff on the bed and had a vacant look in his eyes. “My husband is dead!” The wife told the first thief tearfully.
The first thief was sure that this was a trick so he nodded at the wife. “It so happens that this man owes me money. So now that I cannot take it back I will give him three lashes of my riding whip.”
The second thief heard this and he trembled in fear. He rushed out of the bed not remembering that he was pretending to be dead.
The first thief looked at the second one who had just got up from the bed. The second thief realized that he had been silly and his lie had been found out. So he agreed to pay the remaining three florins to the first thief, in the coming weekend.
However the second thief had not learnt much from his first time. The next weekend he pretended to be dead but this time he hid himself in the hayloft and told his wife to tell the first thief that the second thief was buried in the hayloft after his death.
Then the first thief heard the second thief’s wife’s words, this time the first thief’s wife did not even begin to believe it. “Where have you buried him?” The first thief asked the second thief’s wife.
“In the hayloft.”
“In that case I will take some hay to my home as payment of his debt.”
The first thief went to the hayloft and he poked around the hay with the pitchfork.
The second thief was afraid the pitchfork would hurt him and he rushed out of the hay.
So the second attempt of the second thief was also foiled.
Adapted from Andrew Lang’s Fairy Tales
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