Well then, the son tried hard to drag him out. Because he also could not do it the son cut off the father’s head. Then the thief called Haranṭikā (the son), taking the head and the articles stolen out of the box at the foot of the bed, came home.
Thereafter, having come home he says at the hand of his mother, “Mother, our father was unable to come [out by the window at which he entered the kitchen at the palace]. He endeavoured as much as possible. Because father was unable to come, cutting father’s neck with the knife that was in my hand, [I brought away his head and] I returned here. The theft will come to light. Now then, to-morrow, during the day, having said, ‘Whose is the corpse?’ they will bring it along these four streets. Don’t you either cry out, or lament, or tell about us.” These matters he told his mother.
On the morning of the following day, fixing a noose to the two feet of the dead body, the King ordered the Ministers to take it, and walk [dragging the corpse] along the four streets. Next, he gave orders to the city that everyone, not going anywhere, must remain to observe whose was this dead body. Thereafter, when the Ministers were going along dragging the corpse, the men [and women of the city] remained looking on.
At the time when the wife of the dead man, [on seeing the body] is crying out, “O my husband!” the thief called Haranṭikā, having been in a Murun̆gā tree [in front of the doorway], broke a Murun̆gā branch, and fell to the ground.
Well then, these city people having said, “Who is this who cried out?” at the time when they hear it a part say, “A boy fell from a tree; on that account she is crying out.” Well then, that she cried out on account of this corpse nobody knows. That thief called Haranṭikā was saved by that.
It is owing to that, indeed, they say, “The stratagems which the thief has, even the God Gaṇēśa (the God of Wisdom) does not possess.”
Washerman. North-western Province.
The Dexterous Thief and his Son. (Variant.)
In a certain country there was a very dexterous thief, it is said. This thief had a son and two daughters. These two daughters were wealthy, wearing better silver and golden sorts of things than the women-folk of the other important families of the village.