Mātalānā getting to know that guard has been very carefully placed at the royal house, without going for robbery to the royal house began to steal the goods belonging to the King that are outside. Thereupon the King, having thought that somehow or other having caught the thief he must put him in the stocks, and having made the guards stop everywhere, caused a carpenter to be brought and said, “Having seized the thief who steals the things that are the King’s property, to make him fast in the stocks make a pair of stocks in a thorough manner. Regarding it, ask for and take the whole of the requisite things from the royal house.”
When the King ordered it, the carpenter, taking all the things suitable for it and having gone, made the stocks. On the day on which they were finished, Mātalānā, having arrived at the carpenter’s house, and having been talking very well [with him], asks the carpenter, “Friend, what is this you are making?”
Thereupon the carpenter says, “Why, friend, don’t you know? These are indeed the stocks I am making for the purpose of putting in the stocks the thief who steals the goods belonging to the King,” he said.
When Mātalānā asked, “Anē! How do you put the thief in the stocks in this,” the carpenter having put his two legs in the two holes of the stocks, to show him the method of putting him in the stocks at the time while he is making them, Mātalānā, having [thus] put the carpenter in the stocks, taking the key in his hand [after locking them], struck the carpenter seven or eight blows, and said, “[After] opening a hard trap remain sitting in it your own self, master,” and saying a four line verse also,[1] went away.
On the following day, when the King came to look at the stocks he saw that the carpenter has been put in the stocks. When he asked, “What is this?” he ascertained that the thief named Mātalānā, who is stealing the goods belonging to the King, had come, and having put the carpenter in the stocks and struck him blows went away. Thereupon the King having said, “It is good, the way the thief was put in the stocks!” dismissed the carpenter and went away.
After that, Mātalānā having gone stealing the King’s own clothes that were given for washing at the washerman’s house, at night descended to the King’s pool, and began to wash them very hard. The washerman, ascertaining that circumstance, gave information to the King. Thereupon the King, having mounted upon the back of a horse and the army also surrounding him, went near the pool to seize Mātalānā.
Mātalānā getting to know that the King is coming, the army surrounding him, came to the bank at one side of the pool, carrying a cooking pot that he himself had taken, and having launched [it bottom upwards] and sent it [into the pool], began to cry out, “Your Majesty, look there! The thief sank under the water; [that is his head]. We will descend into the pool from this side; Your Majesty will please look out from that side.”
While he was making the uproar, the foolish King, having unfastened [and thrown down] his clothes, descended into the pool.
Then Mātalānā [quickly came round in the dark, and] putting on the King’s clothes, and having mounted upon the back of the horse, says, “Look there, Bola, the thief! It is indeed he.” When he said, “Seize ye him,” the royal soldiers having seized the King, who had unloosed [and thrown off] his clothes, tied him even while he was saying, “I am the King.” Having tied the King to the leg of the horse on which Mātalānā had mounted, and, employing the King’s retinue, having caused them to thrash him, Mātalānā, in the very manner in which he was [before], having unloosed [and thrown off] the clothes [of the King], bounded off and went away.
After that, the retinue who came with the King having gone taking the [supposed] thief to the royal house, when they were looking perceiving that instead of the thief they had gone tying the King, were in fear of death. The King, not becoming angry at it, consoled his servants; and having been exceedingly angry regarding the deed done by Mātalānā, and having thought by what method he must seize Mātalānā, made them send the notification tom-tom everywhere.