[Shard] - Sosaria
[Type] - Literature
[Book] - Purple 40 pages

[Title] - The Thief
[Author] - AnAxaGoRe

[Page 1]
Sosarian Classics
and Stories


The Thief




[Page 2]

Printed In Minoc
By
AnaX Publishing, Inc.
July 22, 2OO4
Original Edition
ISBN#1O9-37-38-94-T1
All Rights Reserved

[Page 3]


THE THIEF






[Page 4]
Hans wished to put his
son to learn a trade, so
he went into the church
and prayed to our Lord
God to know which would
be the most suitable for
him. Then the clerk got
behind the altar, and said,


[Page 5]
thieving, thieving. On
this Hans goes back to
his son, and tells him
he is to learn thieving,
and that the Lord God
had said so. So he goes
with his son to seek
a man who is acquainted

[Page 6]
with thieving.
They walk a long time
and come into a great
forest, where stands a
little house with an old
woman in it. Hans says,
do you know of a man
who is acquainted with

[Page 7]
thieving. You can
learn that here quite
well, says the woman, my
son is a master of it.
So he speaks with the
son, and asks if he knows
thieving really well.
The master-thief says, I

[Page 8]
will teach him well.
Come back when a year
is over, and then if you
recognize your son, I will
take no payment at all
for teaching him, but if
you don't know him, you
must give me two

[Page 9]
hundred talers.
The father goes home
again, and the son learns
witchcraft and thieving,
thoroughly. When the
year is out, the father
is full of anxiety to know
how he

[Page 10]
son.
As he is thus going
about in his trouble, he
meets a little dwarf, who
says, man, what ails you,
that you are always in
such trouble.


[Page 11]
Oh, says Hans, a year
ago I placed my son with
a master-thief who told
me I was to come back
when the year was out,
and that if I then did
not know my son when I
saw him, I was to

[Page 12]
two hundred talers,
but if I did know him I
was to pay nothing, and
now I am afraid of not
knowing him and can't
tell where I am to get
the money. Then the
dwarf tells him to take a

[Page 13]
crust of bread with him,
and to stand beneath the
chimney.
There on the cross-beam
is a basket, out of which
a little bird is peeping,
and that is your son.
Hans goes thither, and

[Page 14]
throws a crust of black
bread in front of the
basket with the bird in
it, and the little bird
comes out, and looks up.
Hello, my son, are you
here, says the father,
and the son is delighted


[Page 15]
to see his father, but
the master-thief says,
the devil must have
prompted you, or how
could you have known
your son.
Father, let us go, said
the youth.

[Page 16]

Then the father and son
set out homeward. On
the way a carriage
comes driving by.
Hereupon the son says to
his father, I will change
myself into a large

[Page 17]
greyhound, and then you
can earn a great deal of
money by me. Then the
gentleman calls from the
carriage, my man,
will you sell your dog.
Yes, says the father.
How much do you want

[Page 18]
for it. Thirty talers.
Well, man, that is a
great deal, but as it
is such a very fine dog I
will have it. The
gentleman takes it into
his carriage, but when
they have driven a little

[Page 19]
farther the dog
springs out of the
carriage through the
window, and goes back to
his father, and is no
longer a greyhound.
They go home together.
Next day there is a fair


[Page 20]
in the neighboring town,
so the youth says to his
father, I will now change
myself into a beautiful
horse, and you can sell
me, but when you have
sold me, you must take
off my bridle, or I

[Page 21]
cannot become
a man again. Then the
father goes with the
horse to the fair, and
the master-thief comes
and buys the horse for a
hundred talers, but the
father forgets, and does

[Page 22]
not take off the bridle.
So the man goes home
with the horse, and puts
it in the stable.
When the maid crosses
the threshold, the horse
says, take off my bridle,
take off my bridle.

[Page 23]
Then the maid stands
still, and says, what, can
you speak. So she goes
and takes the bridle off,
and the horse becomes a
sparrow, and flies out at
the door, and the
master-thief becomes a

[Page 24]
sparrow also, and flies
after him.

Then they come together
and cast lots again, and
the master loses.
So the master changes

[Page 25]
the youth becomes a
fox, and bites the
master's head off, and he
died and has remained
dead to this day.

The End