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The Thief and the King By Lakshminivas Birla

The Thief and the King

Once upon a time, there was a thief. He was very clever. People said that he could even remove the mascara from a man’s eyes. One day the thief thought that unless he went to the capital and demonstrated his tricks, he would not be able to establish his reputation among the thieves. Thinking this, he left for the capital and after reaching there, he took a tour of the city to see what he could do there.

He decided to start his work from the king’s palace. The king had deployed many soldiers to guard the palace day and night. Even the bird could not enter the palace without being caught. There was a huge clock installed in the palace, which kept ringing the hours to tell the time of day and night.

The thief collected some iron nails and when the clock struck twelve at night, he hammered one nail into the wall of the palace with each strike of the bell. In this way, without making any noise, he put twelve nails in the wall, then holding them, he climbed up and entered the palace. After this he went to the treasury and stole many diamonds from there.

When the theft was discovered the next day, the ministers informed the king. The king was very surprised and angry. He ordered the ministers to double the number of soldiers to patrol the city streets and if anyone was found wandering at night, he should be arrested as a thief.

When this announcement was being made in the court, a thief disguised as a citizen was present. He came to know every detail of the entire plan. He would also immediately know which twenty-six constables had been selected to patrol the city. He went home cleanly and donned the robes of a saint and met the wives of those twenty-six soldiers. Each of them was eager for her husband to catch the thief and receive the reward from the king.

One by one the thief went to all of them and looking at their hands told them that that night was very auspicious for him. A thief will come to her house dressed as her husband; But, see, don’t let the thief come inside your house, otherwise he will overpower you. Close all the doors of the house and even if he is heard speaking in his husband’s voice, throw burning coal on him. The result will be that the thief will be caught.

All the women got ready for the arrival of the thief in the night. They did not inform this to their husbands. Meanwhile the husband went on his patrol and kept guard till four in the morning. Although it was still dark, they did not see anyone around, so they decided to go to their home, thinking that the thief would not come that night. As soon as they reached home, the women became suspicious and started acting like a thief.

The result was that the soldiers got jealous and with great difficulty were able to convince their wives that he was their real husband and the door should be opened for them. All the husbands were taken to the hospital as they were burnt. When the king came to the court the next day, the whole situation was narrated to him. Hearing this, the king became very worried and ordered the Kotwal to go and catch the thief himself.

That night the Kotwal got ready and started guarding the city. While he was going into a street, the thief replied, “I am a thief.” The policeman thought that the girl was joking with him. He said, “Stop joking and if you are a thief then come with me.” I will put you in prison. Thief, okay. What harm will this do to me?’ And he reached the place of burning with the policeman.

Going there, the thief said, “Kotwal Saheb, how do you use this wood, please explain to me.” The Kotwal said, “How can you trust me?” What if I tell you and you run away?’ Thief girl, ‘Without your permission, I have handed myself over to you.

Why would I run away? The policeman agreed to show him how to be hanged. As soon as he put his hands and feet in it, the thief quickly turned the key and closed the wooden lock and walked away after shouting at the policeman.

It was a cold winter night. As the day progressed, the policeman became half dead due to cold. When the soldiers started coming out in the morning, they saw that the policeman was lying trapped in the wood. They pulled him out of it and took him to the hospital.

The next day when the court was held, the entire incident of the night was narrated to the king. The king was so surprised that he decided to keep an eye on the thief himself that night. The thief was present in the court at that time and was listening to everything. When night fell, he disguised himself as a saint and sat down under a tree at the edge of the city, lighting incense sticks.

The king started patrolling and passed in front of the sage twice. When he came there for the third time, he asked the sadhu, “Has he seen any stranger passing by?” The sadhu replied, “He was busy in his meditation, even if someone had passed by him.

He doesn’t know. If you want, sit near me and keep watching whether anyone comes or not. Hearing this, a thought came to the king’s mind and he immediately decided that the sadhu should go around the city wearing his dress and he should wear the sadhu’s clothes. Sat there searching for the thief.

After much debate among themselves and two or three refusals, the thief finally agreed to obey the king and they exchanged clothes. The thief immediately rode the king’s horse to the palace and went to the king’s bedroom and slept comfortably. The poor king pretended to be a saint and waited to catch the thief. Came around four o’clock in the morning.

The king saw that neither the monk returned nor any man or thief passed that way, so he decided to return to the palace; But when he reached the gate of the palace, the sentries thought, the king has already arrived, maybe this is a thief, who wants to enter the palace by pretending to be the king. They captured the king and put him in the dungeon. The king raised an alarm, but no one listened to him.

When daylight came, the sentry guarding the dungeon recognized the king’s face and started trembling with fear. He fell at the feet of the king. The king called all the soldiers and went to the palace. On the other hand, the thief, who had slept in the palace the whole night in the form of a king, as soon as the first rays of the sun broke, disguised himself in the king’s dress and on his horse.

When the king reached his court the next day, he was very dejected. He announced that if the thief appeared before him, he would be forgiven and no action would be taken against him, but he would also be rewarded for his cleverness. The thief was present there and immediately came in front of the king and said, “Your Majesty, I am the culprit.” In proof of this, he presented everything that he had stolen from the king’s palace, along with the king’s dress and His horse too. The king gave him villages as a reward and made him promise that he would stop stealing in future. After this the thief started living happily.