"Well, what luck?"
"Oh, I got his purse from him quite easily; here it is."
"Well, what about the money?" said they.
"Well, that I gave back to him. You only asked me to say, 'Your purse or your life.'"
At that the robbers roared with laughter and said: "You'll never be a thief."
Will was quite ashamed of making such a fool of himself and determined he would do better next time.
So one day he saw two farmers driving a herd of cattle to market, and told the robbers that he knew a way to take the cattle from them without fighting for them.
"If you do that," said they, "you will be a Master Thief."
Then Will went a little way ahead of the robbers with a stout cord, which he tied under his armpits and then fixed himself upon a branch of a tree over the road so that it looked as if he had been hanged.
When the farmers came with their cattle they said: "There's one of the robbers hung up for an example," and drove their cattle on farther.