Then he put them in position, ready for ambush. Soon a messenger arrived to invite Mr. Bag to dinner for the celebration of the minister’s daughter’s wedding, followed by a marksmanship competition. Bag went to the dinner party but left immediately after the meal to join his followers in the shrubs along the roadside.

After a long wait they heard music and soon the procession came into view: musicians, followed by bearers carrying boxes containing the bride’s trousseau, then female attendants carrying baskets full of the finest garments, and finally the bride herself, carried in a litter and heavily veiled. As soon as they had reached the favorable spot, Bag ordered his men to surround the entire procession, whereupon he opened the bride’s litter and ordered her out. “Strip her,” he told his men.

At first, they hesitated, but they obeyed. When her last undergarment was ripped off, they found that “she” was, in fact, a man. The man in the bride’s clothes was the leader of a gang of robbers and murderers. When the shooting match started, the gang, mingling with the guests, had shot every single one of them—most of the guests were drowsy after the excellent dinner. Even the minister, his wife, and his aides had been shot and robbed of all their valuables.

The bearers were carrying boxes full of stolen goods, and the female attendants were not female either; all the goods in their baskets had been stolen. The arrest of all these robbers in one well-planned ambush became the talk of the country, so that even the king heard about it.

The king summoned Bag to his audience hall and told him: “We have heard of your exploits, carried out with great bravery. We have been informed of your repeated successes in arresting dangerous criminals whom the police had sought for years but had failed to apprehend. As you know, one of our prominent ministers has been shot down by the most dangerous of all the bandits, who is now, thanks to your well-planned action, in prison together with all his accomplices.

“We have seen a need for replenishing the rank of our ministers of state. It has pleased us to appoint you as our youngest minister, to begin your work as from today. In the light of your special talents and abilities, it has furthermore pleased us to bestow upon you the title of minister of police.”

Jan Knappert lectures at the School of Oriental and African Languages at the University of London.