The attempt to regain a lost antiquity is seldom crowned with success.  It is so extremely difficult to obtain reliable information; and as soon as a man is suspected his enemies will rush in with accusations.  Thirty-eight separate accusations were sent in against a certain head-watchman during the first days after the fact had leaked out that he was under suspicion.  Not one of them could be shown to be true.  Sometimes one man will bring a charge against another for the betterment of his own interests.  Here is a letter from a watchman who had resigned, but wished to rejoin, “To his Exec.  Chief Dircoter of the tembels.  I have honner to inform that I am your servant X, watchman on the tembels before this time.  Sir from one year ago I work in the Santruple (?) as a watchman about four years ago.  And I not make anything wrong and your Exec. know me.  Now I want to work in my place in the tembel, because the man which in it he not attintive to His, but alway he in the coffee....  He also steal the scribed stones.  Please give your order to point me again.  Your servant, X.”  “The coffee” is, of course, the cafe which adjoins the temple.

A short time ago a young man came to me with an accusation against his own father, who, he said, had stolen a statuette.  The tale which he told was circumstantial, but it was hotly denied by his infuriated parent.  He looked, however, a trifle more honest than his father, and when a younger brother was brought in as witness, one felt that the guilt of the old man would be the probable finding.  The boy stared steadfastly at the ground for some moments, however, and then launched out into an elaborate explanation of the whole affair.  He said that he asked his father to lend him four pounds, but the father had refused.  The son insisted that that sum was due to him as his share in some transaction, and pointed out that though he only asked for it as a loan, he had in reality a claim to it.  The old man refused to hand it over, and the son, therefore, waited his opportunity and stole it from his house, carrying it off triumphantly to his own establishment.  Here he gave it into the charge of his young wife, and went about his business.  The father, however, guessed where the money had gone; and while his son was out, invaded his house, beat his daughter-in-law on the soles of her feet until she confessed where the money was hidden, and then, having obtained it, returned to his home.  When the son came back to his house he learnt what had happened, and, out of spite, at once invented the accusation which he had brought to me.  This story appeared to be true in so far as the quarrel over the money was concerned, but that the accusation was invented proved to be untrue.

Sometimes the peasants have such honest faces that it is difficult to believe that they are guilty of deceit.  A lady came to the camp of a certain party of excavators at Thebes, holding in her hand a scarab.  “Do tell me,” she said to one of the archaeologists, “whether this scarab is genuine.  I am sure it must be, for I bought it from a boy who assured me that he had stolen it from your excavations, and he looked such an honest and truthful little fellow.”