Then the Ministers said, "According to the way in which it appears to
us, maybe it is a thievish female Grey Monkey that is in the garden,
who took the necklace." The Ministers said, "You ought to set free
these four persons." After that, the King having released the four
persons sent them away.
Afterwards, the Ministers having gone to the garden, caught a male
Grey Monkey. [After] catching it they came to the palace, and having
sewn the jacket and breeches, and put the jacket on the Monkey,
and put the breeches [on it], and put flower garlands [on it],
and dressed the Monkey, and again sent the Monkey to the garden,
the Ministers remained looking on.
Then that thievish female Grey Monkey who took the necklace, having
seen the Monkey that had been clothed, went to the fork of the tree in
which she placed the necklace, and placing the necklace on her neck,
came outside.
These Ministers having seen it, the Ministers clapped their hands
[to frighten her]. At the time when they were saying "Hu," as that
female Grey Monkey was going jumping and jumping from tree to tree,
the necklace that was on the female Monkey's neck fell to the ground.
After that, the Ministers went, and picking it up, came to the royal
palace and presented it to the King. On account of it, the King having
become much pleased with the Ministers gave them many offices.
North-western Province.
This is evidently the Jataka story No. 92 (vol. i, p. 224), in which
the man who was first caught declared that he gave the necklace to the
Treasurer, who said that he passed it on to the Chaplain, who stated
that it was given to the Chief Musician, who said he handed it to the
Courtesan. To make the monkey produce and wear it, a number of bead
necklaces were placed on the necks, wrists and ankles of other monkeys
that were caught. In this story the last person charged totally denied
having received the necklace.
In A. von Schiefner's Tibetan Tales (Ralston), p. 181, the Queen
hung the necklace on a tree, whence a monkey stole it. A beggar who
was arrested first charged a merchant with receiving it from him,
and afterwards also, as accomplices, a courtesan, a lute player,
and the son of the Minister. The Minister got the King to release the
prisoners, and to take the Queen to the park wearing a necklace. When
she danced the monkey imitated her, and the necklace fell off its neck.
With reference to the remarks of the prisoners in the Sinhalese
version, that being wealthy persons they could escape by paying the
value of the missing necklace, a statement not found in the Jataka
story, Sirr, who was a Deputy Queen's Advocate in Ceylon, stated
in Ceylon and the Cingalese (1850), vol. ii., p. 231, that "theft
was punished by a fine equal to the value of the stolen property,
by flogging, and by imprisonment; or, if the thief immediately
restored the property, he was only flogged and paraded through the
village where the crime had been committed." According to Dr. Davy,
flogging and imprisonment were not always inflicted, however.
In the middle of the seventeenth century, according to Ribeiro,
"if the thief confessed his crime he was condemned to pay the
highest value of the article which satisfied the other party, and
as a penalty for his offence double its value to the Royal Treasury"
(History of Ceilão, translation by Pieris, 2nd ed., p. 152).