Honouring the Thieves

Three thieves who broke into the house instead ‘got lost in the forest’ all night, then fell asleep on the floor of the Kyai’s room. The Kyai did not call his santri; he slaughtered a rooster, asked Nyai (his wife) to cook it, then invited the thieves to breakfast, gave each of them a bathok (coconut-shell measure) of rice to take with them, and thanked them for ‘having guarded his house all night’. They repented. Similar stories: a coconut thief who ‘could not get down’, and fire ants (semut geni) that foiled five holes dug by burglars.