No. 7 — A thief's repentance
A thief broke through the wall into the house of an old couple. Instead of driving him off, the old woman fed him, and had the thief himself repair the broken wall so the neighbors would not notice. The old man watched on calmly throughout, and the old woman even gave the thief a little money to see him off, so that the thief, who had braced himself to be beaten, was ashamed of his heart and vowed to reform, weeping as he begged forgiveness. Some years later, the thief, now become a fine merchant, came bearing many gifts to give his thanks.
- Land
- Inaba and Hoki
- Type
- Strange Fates
This is an English rendering of our short Japanese summary of the source tale — a summary translated from the Japanese, not a translation of the original text. The summary was drafted and translated with AI assistance, and names and numbers were checked against our records. Tale numbers for this book follow the order in which the tales appear; they are ours, not the book's.