"The Thief and the Ladder of Moonbeams."

From Calila y Dimna (a collection of fables).


Summary: A thief on the roof of a rich man’s house. The rich man awakes and assumes the intruder on the roof is a thief. He awakens his wife and tells her to ask him how he became so rich. In reply to her question, he concocts a story that he used to go on to roof tops in the moonlight, spoke a magic formula, “Saulan Saulan,” then climbed down the moonbeams into the house unheard by the residents and stole everything. Then he repeated “Saulan Saulan,” and climbed up the moon beams back to the roof and made his escape. The thief hears this explanation, says the magic formula and falls off the roof as he tries to clutch the moonbeams and crashes to the ground below where the rich man beats him to within an inch of his life.

Comment: Moral—if you believe everything you hear, you’re a fool. RayS.

Spanish Stories and Tales. Ed. By Harriet de Onís. The Pocket Library, 1956. Pp. 49-84.