A THIEF hired a room in a tavern and stayed a while in the hope of

stealing something which should enable him to pay his reckoning. When
he had waited some days in vain, he saw the Innkeeper dressed in a new
and handsome coat and sitting before his door. The Thief sat down
beside him and talked with him. As the conversation began to flag, the
Thief yawned terribly and at the same time howled like a wolf. The
Innkeeper said, “Why do you howl so fearfully?” “I will tell you,” said
the Thief, “but first let me ask you to hold my clothes, or I shall
tear them to pieces. I know not, sir, when I got this habit of yawning,
nor whether these attacks of howling were inflicted on me as a judgment
for my crimes, or for any other cause; but this I do know, that when I
yawn for the third time, I actually turn into a wolf and attack men.”