Story 189 - The Thief called Harantika

IN a certain city there was a thief, Harantikaya by name. The thief, together with his father, goes to commit robberies. For a long period, at the time when they are committing robberies at that city not a single person could seize that thief.

One day, the father and son having spoken about breaking into the box of valuables at the foot of the bed^[1] of the King of the city, entered the King’s palace. Having entered it, and gone by a window into the kitchen, and eaten the royal food that was cooked for the King, he went into the very room and broke into the box at the foot of the bed; and taking the goods and having come back into the kitchen, he put [outside] the articles he had brought. It was the father who went into the house, and put out the articles. The son stayed near the window, on the outer side.

Well then, the father tries (lit., makes) to come out by the window; [because of the quantity of food he has eaten] he cannot come.^[2] Thereafter, the father, having put out his neck through the window, told the son to drag him out.

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 Harantika (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 Harantika, having been in a Murunga tree [in front of the doorway], broke a Murunga 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 Harantika was saved by that.

It is owing to that, indeed, they say,The stratagems which the thief has, even the God Ganesha (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.

Well then, because this principal thief’s son was a person possessing divine skill (sura-nuwana), ascertaining that they had become wealthy because of the dexterous character of his father’s robbery, he got into his mind [the notion] to earn the very same livelihood as his father, having become a dexterous thief to the same degree.

When this principal thief was going for robbery it was a custom [of his] to go [after] tying two pairs of small bells on both feet. When the thief’s son asked his mother,

“What is the motive for going for robbery, tying on the bells ?”

she said thus:

“Why, son ? As though they are not hearing the noise of your father’s pair of little bells, he goes [after] tying on the pair of little bells, having put them on the foot by way of ingenuity, for the purpose^of remembering to commit [only] theft.”

Well then, one day, when the father had started to go for robbery, the son also asked his mother [for permission] to go with him. At that time his mother said thus:

“Son, because of [your not possessing] your father’s dexterity, at no time are you able, indeed, to get a bare subsistence by doing that for a livelihood. Because of that don’t you try to go.”

On the following day, when the father was going for robbery this son also went without concealing himself, just behind his father. [The father] having dug into a house, when he was becoming ready to enter the house, this son went behind quietly, and cutting off the two pairs of little bells that were on his father’s two feet, came home.

The father, also, perceiving, before entering the house, that some one had cut both pairs of little bells off his two feet, having dropped the doing house-robbery, and having gone running home, from that day remained lying down, without eating, without drinking.

When this thief’s wife asked,

“Why are you doing that ?”

the thief says,

“After he cut off my two pairs of little bells, which, from the day I was born, for so much time were committing robbery more cleverly than all, well, I shall not go for robbery, and shall not eat, and shall not drink,”

he said.

Because the thief’s wife had ascertained that his son had cut off his father’s two pairs of little bells, having said to the thief,

“Don’t be grieved,”

she told him that his own son cut off the two pairs of little bells. Thereupon the thief was extremely satisfied regarding his son.

Again one day, on the day when there was a feast at the King’s house, the principal thief was ready to go to commit robbery in the royal house. His son also said that he was wishful to go. Thereupon the father said,

“Because thou also art a dexterous thief of my own quality, come.”

They two having gone, and having dug into the royal palace, while the son remained outside the father went into the house, and having brought gold, silver, pearls, gems, various other things, gave them to his son.

From the time when the father, having dug into the house, entered it, the son said,

“Father, however sweet the royal food should be, don’t eat even a little, indeed.”

But as soon as the father’s nose perceived the sweet odour of the tasty sorts of food, the father began to eat the royal provisions to the possible extent. Having thus eaten, and having finished, taking also a quantity of goods, when, having filled his belly, [he was] coming to give them to his son, his belly having been filled and having become enlarged, he was unable to creep out by the place which he first dug; and he stuck fast.

Thereupon the son, having gone running to the house, taking also the goods, informed his mother about this; and again having gone to the King’s house, taking a sword also, and having seen that the father having been stuck fast was dead, cutting the father’s neck with the sword he brought home only the head.

On the following day, in the morning having perceived that the goods at the royal house have been stolen, and having caused soothsayers to be brought to find the thief, when [the King] asked the sooth the soothsayers said,

“The thief has entered on such and such a side of such and such a store-house, having dug a long tunnel. The thief indeed can be found; the things cannot be found.”

Thereupon the King, having made inquiry and when he looked having seen that in the end of the tunnel a man without the head part had become stuck fast, for the purpose of finding who are the relatives whom the man has, and his friends, commanded that during the whole of three days [they were] to walk, bringing the corpse, everywhere in the city.

Well then, as this corpse—the above-mentioned corpse— was coming to pass in front of the house of its owners, the above-mentioned son said to his mother and sisters,

“They are now taking our father’s corpse [and are about to pass] in front of our house. Having seen it, don’t anyone of you lament.”

This word the mother and sisters accepted. But because this son thinks there is uncertainty if they will lament, having ascended a Murunga tree that was in front of the doorway he remained [there].

At the time when he is thus, as they are taking the corpse in front of the said house, that mother and the sisters, unable to go on restraining their grief, cried out,

“ Ane ! O our father !”^[3]

There and then, the son who was in the Murunga tree, breaking a branch also from the tree jumped down, and was as though dead.

At that time that mother and the sisters, calling out,

“Ane ! O my son ! Ane ! O our elder brother !”

and having come running, and gone, taking the son, into the house, gave him medicine and began to attend to him. Thereupon the people who were carrying that corpse thought,

“They are crying owing to that woman’s son’s having died,”

and went away.

By this means the people of the thief’s family, not tasting (lit., eating) death from the King, escaped.

Western Province.

 

Note:

In The Orientalist, vol. i, p. 59, Mr. W. Goonetilleke gave the story as it was related in the Supplement to the Ceylon Observer. The thief passed through a small pre-existing tunnel into the King’s palace, and after feasting inside stuck fast in it on his way back, and ordered his son to cut off his head and escape with it. The youth acted accordingly and threw it in a weighted basket into the river. The rest of the story agrees with those given above.

In the story related by Herodotus (Euterpe, 121, 1) of the robbery of the treasury of King Rhampsinitus, the thief entered by removing a loose stone, laid for the purpose by his father when he was building the treasury. He did not feast inside the palace nor stick fast on his way out, but was caught in a trap laid for him in the treasury. His brother entered, and at his own request cut ofi his head to save the family reputation. The King hung the body from the wall, and stationed sentinels who were commanded to arrest anyone who wept on seeing it. The brother made them drunk and carried off the corpse by his mother’s orders. After vainly making use of his daughter as a bait for the thief, in the end the King for— gave him on account of his cleverness and married his daughter to him.

In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. ii, p. 93, Karpara, one of two thieves, broke through the wall of the palace and entered the room of the Princess. She fell in love with him, but he remained too long, and was arrested and hanged ; while being led away he signalled to his friend to carry off the Princess. The friend, Ghata, at night dug a tunnel into the palace, found the Princess in fetters, and brought her away. The King set guards near Karpara’s body to arrest anyone who came to bum the corpse and perform the funeral rites, but Ghata tricked them, lamented over the body, burned it, and threw the remains of the bones into the Ganges. Although the King offered half his kingdom if the thief would reveal himself, Ghata left the country with the Princess. The translator mentioned European and other parallels (pp. 93 and 100).

In A. von Schiefner’s Tibetan Tales (Ralston), p. 39, a weaver went with a clever nephew to break into a house. As he was passing feet foremost through the hole they made, the people inside seized his feet and began to drag him through, so the boy cut off his head and decamped with it. The King ordered the trunk to be exposed at the cross-roads in the main street, in order to arrest anyone who wailed over it. The youth, personating various people, wailed over it as a madman, burned it, presented cakes, and threw the bones into the Ganges. The King then set his daughter at the river bank as a bait, and left a guard near. After sending down a number of floating water vessels the thief covered his head with one, and swam to the Princess, who afterwards had a son by means of whom the King identified the thief, to whom he formally gave the Princess and half the kingdom. In Cinq Cents Contes et Apologues (Chavannes), vol. ii, p. 380, the story is similar.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Pamula pettiya. See vol. i, p. 183, footnote.

[2]:

See vol. i, p. 10, on the small size of modem windows in the villages.

[3]:

A very common exclamation of grief, surprise, or sometimes annoyance. The relative addressed is always either the father, the mother, or the elder brother, in such cases.