The soldier brought the man whom he had met and the man repeated his words.
The soldier told the king that he had been on the way to the other kingdom when he met this man who was from the very kingdom that he was supposed to go to and that was the reason that he had brought his man before the king
The king was shocked when he realized that the man who had spoken to him had spoken the truth.
The king and the soldier both believed that the stranger who the soldier had brought to the court had spoken the truth.
The king and his soldier did not investigate the matter any further. The king decided to keep his part of the bet and he paid the man with whom he had lost the bet, the promised three hundred florins.
Naturally the stranger who had the bet with the king and the stranger who had met the soldier were the two thieves.
They had worked together in this unconventional way and had stolen the three hundred florins from the king.
After the success of their first attempt the two thieves went to two other kingdoms and they pulled the same trick before the kings of those kingdoms.
Soon the two thieves became very rich.
After having made enough money the two thieves divided their ill-gotten gains into equal shares.
However one of the men kept back three florins that belonged to the other man.
After having taken their respective money, the two men went their way and settled down in their homes with their respective wives.
Adapted from Andrew Lang’s Fairy Tales
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