‘I!!’ said St. Peter, getting very angry. ‘How dare you to say such a thing of me!’
But Jesus Christ made him a sign that he should keep silence.
‘We will go back to your house and help you to look for what you have lost, for that none of us have taken the spoon is most certain,’ He said; and He went back with the hunchback.
‘There is nowhere to search,’ answered the hunchback, ‘but in that man’s bag; I know it is there, because I saw him take it.’
‘Then there’s my bag inside out,’ said St. Peter, as he cast the contents upon the floor. Of course the silver spoon fell clattering upon the bricks.
‘There!’ said the hunchback, insolently. ‘Didn’t I tell you it was there? You said it wasn’t!’
St. Peter was so angry he could not trust himself to speak; but Jesus Christ answered for him:
‘Nay, I said not it was not there, but that none of these had taken it. And now we will see who it was put it there.’ With that He motioned to them all to stand back, while He, standing in the midst and raising his eyes to Heaven, said solemnly,
‘Let whoso put it in the bag be turned to stone!’
Even as He spoke the hunchback was turned into stone.