But the scrawny old man and the scrawny old woman cried and howled and said that they had not taken the bag of cowries. And when the neighbors searched the hut they did not find it.
But the neighbors still believed that the scrawny old man and the scrawny old woman had taken the bag of cowries, and they said, “We will come with our whips of hippopotamus hide and you shall eat whip until you give back the cowries that you stole.”
Then while the neighbors went to fetch their whips, the scrawny old man and the scrawny old woman climbed up and got the bag of cowries, which they had hidden in the thatch of the roof, and ran with it into the forest. But they were not quite quick enough. The neighbors saw them and came after them so fast with their whips of hippopotamus hide, that at last the scrawny old man and the scrawny old woman had to climb into a tree.
“You shall not come down from the tree,” cried the neighbors, looking up at the scrawny old man and the scrawny old woman where they squatted among the branches, “until you give back the cowries that you stole from the poor sick man.”
“We will stay in this tree until they go away, and then we will climb down and escape,” said the scrawny old man to the scrawny old woman.
The neighbors heard what he said, and they shouted, “We will stay under the tree until you come down.”
“When they go home to get their supper we will climb down and run away very fast in the dark,” said the scrawny old woman to the scrawny old man.
The neighbors heard her, and they shouted, “We will build huts under the tree and take turns watching for you to come down.”
And so they did.