eans of an artifice in the science of thieving: it is so handy and
easy that no one can have any suspicion whatever." "How so?" "I used to
manage this way: On a moonlight night I would go out with my companions,
get up to the roof of the house of the person I wanted to rob as far as
the sky light through which the moon shone and then uttered seven times
the charm _Sholam Sholam Sholam_. I would then embrace the rays and
slide down into the house without any body noticing my intrusion. Then
at the other extremity of the moon-beams I again would seven times
repeat the magic word and all the money and treasures in the house
became visible to me. I could take of them whatever I would. Once more I
would embrace the beams and rehearsing again seven times the magic word
mount up to my companions and load them with all I had. Next we stole
away unscathed."

When the robbers overheard this they rejoiced exceedingly and said: "In
this house we have got a spoil which is more valuable to us than the
gold which we can get there; we have acquired a means by which God
delivers us from fear and we are secure against the authorities." So
they watched for a long time and when they had made sure that the master
of the house and his wife had gone to sleep the leader of the robbers
stepped up to the spot where the light streamed through the hole, spoke
Sholam Sholam seven times, clasped the rays with the intention of
dropping down along them and fell head foremost on the floor. The
husband sprang to his feet with a club and thrashed him to a jelly
asking him, "Who are you?" And he replied, "The deceived believer: this
is the fruit of blind faith."

[Sidenote: More religious investigation and more despair.]

[Sidenote: A dilemma.]

Accordingly, after I had grown sufficiently circumspect not to credit
what might probably lead to my perdition, I started again investigating
religions to discover the true one. But I again found no reply whenever
I put questions to any one and when a doctrine was propounded to me I
found nothing which in my judgment merited belief or served me as a
guiding principle. Then I said, "The most reasonable course is to cling
to the religion in which I found my fathers." Yet when I sought
justification for this course I found none and said to myself, "If that
be justification then the sorcerer also had one who found his
progenitors to be wizards." And I thought of the man who ate indecently
and when he was rebuked f