The burglar's signature
Once there were two kings who were very good friends. They used to help each other all the time. One day one of the kings needed a large sum of money. He made a request to his friend, and his friend immediately agreed to give it to him. The first king said, “I will send my minister to you, so please give it to him.”The other king said, “Definitely I will give it to him.”
So the first king sent his minister and three or four bodyguards to the other king. Now, in the first king’s kingdom there was a burglar who used to steal money every night. He was a real rogue, but nobody could catch him. He had stolen lots of money, and with this money he had bribed certain palace officials to give him news of what was happening there. He hoped that one day he would be able to enter into the palace with their help and steal everything.
The thief heard from his palace friends that the minister was going to get money from the other king. That evening, as the minister and three guards set out from the palace, all of a sudden the burglar and three of his friends came and surrounded them. The thief said to them, “Now give us your clothes. I have brought some other clothes for you. I will wear the minister’s clothes and my three friends will wear the guards’ uniforms.” Then the thief and his followers forced the minister and the guards to give up their clothes.
Now it happened that the thief did not know how to read and write. But he was very clever. Several days earlier, he had gone to a great scholar and asked him how to write the minister’s name.
The scholar had asked him, “Why do you have to know how to write the minister’s name?”
The thief told him, “I want to know for some special purpose.”
The scholar said, “No, I won’t teach you how to sign the minister’s name.”
Finally the burglar said, “You have to teach me; otherwise, I will kill you.”
The scholar got frightened and said, “All right, don’t kill me. I will teach you how to sign his name.”
The burglar wanted to be able to sign the minister’s name in case the other king asked for his signature on a receipt. He knew that he was going to get the minister’s clothes, so he also wanted to be able to sign the minister’s name.
After changing clothes the thief and his three followers went to the neighbouring king’s palace and got the money. It was a very, very large amount. The burglar wanted to show off that he knew how to sign the minister’s name, so he said, “Do you not need my signature?”
The king said, “Oh no, your king and I are such good friends. I don’t need your signature.”
The thief said, “Still it is good to get the signature.”
The king said, “All right, if you want to sign, you can. But I really don’t need any signature.”
So the false minister wrote down “Junga the Burglar”.
Immediately the king got a shock. He thought to himself, “O God, how could this happen?” He asked the minister and the three guards to wait for a while. Then he ordered his guards to go to the other king.
When they arrived, the guards said to the king, “We always hear that Junga is the worst possible burglar in your kingdom. How is it that your minister has signed Junga’s name? Our king wants to know why your minister is making fun of him when he is giving you so much money.”
By this time the real minister had returned to the palace with the three guards and had told his king that he had been forced to change clothes. Immediately the king sent the message to his friend. His friend arrested Junga and sent him back to the first king. Then he personally brought the money to the neighbouring king.
So the thief was caught because the scholar was so clever. Since Junga did not know how to read or write, the scholar taught him how to write his own name and told him that it was the minister’s name.
