The Thief and the Moonlight

A thief decided to break into a rich man's house one night. He climbed onto the roof; he was going to get in through the chimney. The householder heard the thief walking on the roof. He whispered to his wife: "Ask me out loud how I earned so much wealth."

His wife asked: "Tell me, how did you gather all this wealth?" The man answered loudly: "In my youth I was a thief. But I knew a magic word: I would say 'shulem shulem,' wrap myself in the moonlight and glide down from the roof, and nobody saw me. I would say it seven times, and the moonlight carried me."

The thief was listening on the roof. "What a secret!" he said with delight. "Shulem shulem, shulem shulem..." he said it seven times, wrapped himself in the moonlight that reached down the chimney and... thump! He fell to the floor and twisted his leg.

The householder lit the lamp: "Welcome. How was the moonlight?" The thief groaned, "I believed your words." The man said, "Whoever believes another man's story of riches and wraps himself in moonlight falls to the floor." He let the thief go, but gave him bread: "From now on, find your own light."

The thief never climbed onto a roof again. Years later he became a householder himself; and whenever someone walked on his roof, he told the same story.