were well out of the house, the first thing that he did was to drive the
oxen out on the road, whereupon they all ran home again to the man from
whom he had stolen them, and right glad was the husbandman to see them.
Then he brought out all the horses the robbers had, and loaded them with
the most valuable things which he could find--vessels of gold and of
silver, and clothes and other magnificent things--and then he told the
old woman to greet the robbers from him and thank them from him, and
say that he had gone away, and that they would have a great deal of
difficulty in finding him again, and with that he drove the horses out
of the courtyard. After a long, long time he came to the road on which
he was travelling when he came to the robbers. And when he had got very
near home, and was in sight of the house where his father lived, he put
on a uniform which he had found among the things he had taken from the
robbers, and which was made just like a general's, and drove into the
yard just as if he were a great man. Then he entered the house and asked
if he could find a lodging there.

'No, indeed you can't!' said his father. 'How could I possibly be able
to lodge such a great gentleman as you? It is all that I can do to find
clothes and bedding for myself, and wretched they are.'

'You were always a hard man,' said the youth, 'and hard you are still if
you refuse to let your own son come into your house.'

'Are you my son?' said the man.

'Do you not know me again then?' said the youth.

Then he recognised him and said, 'But what trade have you taken to that
has made you such a great man in so short a time?'

'Oh, that I will tell you,' answered the youth. 'You said that I might
take to anything I liked, so I apprenticed myself to some thieves and
robbers, and now I have served my time and have become Master Thief.'

Now the Governor of the province lived by his father's cottage, and this
Governor had such a large house and so much money that he did not even
know how much it was, and he had a daughter too who was both pretty and
dainty, and good and wise. So the Master Thief was determined to have
her to wife, and told his father that he was to go to the Governor, and
ask for his daughter for him. 'If he asks what trade I follow, you may
say that I am a Master Thief,' said he.

'I think you must be crazy,' said the man, 'for you can't be in your
senses if you think of anything so foolish.'

'You must go to the