Week 5 Story: The Girl and the Thief

     There once was a successful merchant named Jewel with a wonderful wife named Pleasing and a beautiful daughter named Pearl. Their family was well off because the father was successful in his trade in the town of Adyodhya. Jewel was content with his life and all he had left to accomplish was to marry his daughter off to someone successful. He brought great merchants and even kings over to meet Pearl but Pearl had no attraction towards any of them.
     That night, there was some rustling outside of Pearl’s window. She cautiously walked towards the window as she heard loud yelling coming from a group. She could make out some phrases such as “We need to find him!” and “I’ll make sure to get back what was mine!”. She looked out the window to see a man hiding in her bushes and an oncoming angry crowd with weapons. Her heart raced as she tried to figure out what to do but she decided that every story has more than one side so she opened her window and ushered him in. Pearl couldn’t discern his features in the dark outside her window but now that he was standing in her room, she could see that he was more handsome than she had imagined. She found herself unable to keep her eyes off him as he scoped outside to look for his escape route. He thanked her for her help and jumped out of the window into the darkness. Every night after their initial encounter, Pearl waited for him around that time outside her window. Their relationship quickly bloomed but was kept a secret.
     When the king heard of his citizens being robbed every night, he decided to take action and find the thief himself. He disguised himself and waited outside at night to catch the thief. He saw a figure run out of a building towards him, he was surprised as the thief asked him “Who are you?” He responded “I am a thief.” The thief was glad to find someone that he could become allies with. The thief invited the king to his home and as the thief went to sleep, the king snuck out and went back to his castle to gather a few of his men to go capture the thief. The king’s men kicked down the door of the thief’s house and came in. The thief heard the commotion and tried to flee out the back entrance, the king knew he would try to escape that way so he was ready. The thief and the king both withdrew their swords and the king won with his many years of experience in sword fighting. The king brought the thief back to the castle alive to kill him in front of all of the citizens to dwindle the anger of his citizens.
     News spread throughout the kingdom that the thief had been caught and Pearl’s heart stopped as she realized who it must have been. She looked out her window to see her lover held down and tied up. She begged her father to ask the king to let the thief go or she would go die with him too. The father couldn’t comprehend why his daughter was in love with a thief but would do anything to make his daughter happy so he offered the king anything in return to release the thief but the king would not budge. The thief was executed in front of the crowd. Pearl was devastated and ran to retrieve the thief’s body. She brought the body with her to the middle of the forest and planned to light them both on fire so she could die with him. As she was about to die, a goddess arrived and stopped Pearl by granting her a wish. Pearl wished that the thief would come back to life and become a good person who the king would respect. Pearl’s wish was granted and the thief came back to life. He from then on, learned the trade from his future father in law and no longer reverted back to his old days of stealing for a source of income.

                                         

Rapunzel looking down at her lover on her balcony: DeviantArt

Bibliography. "The Girl and the Thief" from Twenty-Two Goblins by Arthur Ryder, websource

Author's note: The story starts off with a merchant's daughter named Pearl who is beautiful and charming but refuses kings and great merchants. Her father is deeply sad about her love life but then the citizens were being robbed every night by thieves so the king went to go stop the thieves. The king found one and told the thief that the king was also a thief so the thief took him home to show him hospitality but the maid told the king to escape or he would be harmed so the king escaped to go get help and came back to capture the thief. He successfully captured the thief with his own hands and brought him back to be killed. Pearl saw the thief out of her balcony and cried at the sight of his death because she fell in love with him at first sight and her father thought she was crazy to love a thief but not kings or merchants but she wouldn't have it. She said she would go die with him and took his body to the stake to be burned with him but then a goddess granted her a wish to bring him back to life and make him a good person so that the king would accept him. I decided to mainly keep the story line the same because I really like the original story but I wanted to add more detail and add a background story to Pearl's love life with the thief. The original story made Pearl fall in love with the thief at first sight just by seeing him outside her balcony but I wanted to build up their relationship so that it made more sense why she was so sad when he was about to be killed.