THE BUNNIAH’S WIFE AND THE THIEF
A Bunniah, or merchant, lying awake one night, saw a thief enter the room. So he whispered to his wife: “Wife, wife, a thief is in the room; what are we to do?”
Now his wife was a very clever woman, and she replied: “Why are you waking me? I was having such a fine dream.”
“What did you dream?” asked her husband.
“I dreamt that I had three fine sons, and they were named ‘Mugwani,’ ‘Hajee,’ and ‘Chor.’ ” (The last name means “thief.”)
“What silly names!” said the Bunniah. “How could you call out to them?”
“By their names, of course,” replied she.
“But how could you call ‘Chor’? If it happened to be night, what would people think?”
“Why, I would call him like this, loud: ‘Chor!’ ‘Chor!’ ” and she jumped up and ran out of the room, followed by her husband, the two calling “Chor! Chor!” as loudly as they could.
The thief, thinking they were only pretending, remained silent under the bed, waiting for their return. They soon came back with a number of friends, who caught the thief and took him away to prison.