Once a group of villagers decided to go out on a pilgrimage to some holy places A thief thinking that it was time for him to stop thieving and to begin expiating the sins, expressed his desire to the leaders of the party to go with them. They agreed to the proposal, thinking that the pilgrimage was more necessary for a man of his type than even for themselves and that it might help him to turn over a new leaf.
The party started for Banaras and thence they went to Mathura and Brindaban. Everyday in the course of their tour they had the curious experience of finding that some of the articles belonging to one or two of the party were missing and that they were mixed up with the baggages belonging to some other persons. Being at a loss to account for this, they suspected the thief, and one night some of the members of the party sat up the whole night in order to see who was at the bottom of the mischief. The thief was caught red-handed while he was transferring some of the articles belonging to one of the party to the belongings of another. When he was asked to explain his conduct he said, “My good Sirs, owing to my past habits I am unable to have a wink of sleep at night and I have to do something to keep my mind engaged. Having abjured thieving, the best that I could think of was to put one man’s articles into another’s package, and I am thankful that I am doing nothing worse.”