Thus equipped, and dressed up to look like an old merchant, he set out for the place where his brother’s body was suspended.  When he drew near to the sentinels, he secretly loosened some of the strings which fastened the necks of the wineskins, and then whipping the donkeys and letting them run on a little way in front, he pursued them with loud cries.

“Oh, miserable wretch that I am!” he cried, beating his head and looking the very picture of despair.  “All my good wine wasted on the ground!  What shall I do?  Oh, what shall I do?  Stop, most ungrateful of donkeys, children of Set, that devour my substance and waste my wine as if it were water!  May Tefnet plague you with gadflies, and Renenutet poison the thistles!  Oh dear! oh dear!  I am a ruined man.”

The soldiers, supposing it to be a genuine accident, laughed loudly at the fellow’s distress, and while some chased and caught the donkeys, the others brought bowls and pitchers and began to drink the wine, as it ran out of the skins.

“Never mind, worthy sir!” they said to Ladronius.  “The wine is serving a very good purpose.  Here is to our future friendship and your excellency’s very good health!”

Ladronius pretended to fly into a great passion, and called them thieves and monsters of iniquity for robbing a poor man of his wine.

“Ay, laugh away!” he cried.  “But a day of reckoning will come for your wickedness.  See how the law treats robbers!” And he pointed to his brother’s body hanging on the wall.

“Now, by Anubis, the fellow speaks truth,” said one of the soldiers.  “We are but sorry fellows to drink away a poor man’s living, and if this were to come to the ears of the king, we should be in evil case for leaving our duty.”

The others laughed good-humoredly, as they tied up some of the skins, and did their best to put the merchant into a good temper.  Ladronius, after a little more grumbling, appeared to be pacified, and, as a sign of good-will, presented a wineskin to the soldier who had first spoken in his favor.

“May you never want a young friend to speak for you in your old age,” said he, “and may you meet with no worse companions than these; for though they seem to be somewhat headstrong, yet I perceive that I spoke hard words in my anger.”

The soldiers, who by this time had sat down on the grass and were passing the wineskin from one to another, declared that the merchant was a good-hearted old fellow and invited him to come and drink their health.

“Nay, my masters,” said Ladronius, pretending to adjust the straps on the donkeys’ backs.  “I have far to go, and I am but a little way on my journey.”

But, as they pressed him, he consented to drink one cup with them before he went.  “Though in truth,” he added, “if I mistake not, the skin is emptied already.  I see that you would force me to part with another, before I set out.”