The village of Dhaghbit had snow-covered mountains summer and winter, fields full of fruitful trees, pure, refreshing air, and springs – too many to count. People came from nearby towns and villages for rest and recreation, but the women of the village wished Dhaghbit would vanish from the earth so that they could be rid of their boorish men, for in their village a woman could not even mutter “good morning” to her husband unless he gave her permission.
But something happened in Dhaghbit that people could not recount because it would have been too offensive to speak of it. Many homes were broken into late at night by a strange man who, it was said, wanted to rob and rape, but the householders did not complain to the police at the station which was always filled with people yawning. No news about the thief ’s success or failure was allowed to escape. It was observed, however, that the women of Dhaghbit started to ignore their husbands’ orders and did exactly as they pleased.
There lived in Dhaghbit an old man who until his retirement did not know any other profession than soldiering. He lived alone in a big house that had many entrances and was difficult to guard. It occurred to him that the thief might want to raid his home. If there was no one there worthy of being raped, there was certainly something worth being stolen. He started keeping watch at night, staying awake with his gun, waiting for the thief. He did not have to wait long, for without knowing how it happened he found himself face to face with the man, holding the gun to his neck and ordering him not to move. The thief obeyed without complaining, and the old man removed a dagger and a revolver from him and tied him up with the thick ropes he had readied for the occasion. He sat in front of him smoking a cigarette, and asked him what he had done in Dhaghbit, and the thief answered immediately and with enthusiasm. It turned out that what he was saying was different from what was commonly believed. He claimed with pride that in every house he entered he raped the man in front of his wife. He said to the old man, “Ask any woman about me, and she will tell you that I treated her with respect, the way I treat my sister and my grandmother.”
The thief added proudly that there were very few men left in Dhaghbit whom he hadn’t raped, and nothing was going to save them.
He then laughed and said to the old man, “Don’t let big mustaches and big talk impress you. Many of the men weren’t ashamed before their wives and asked me to rape them a second time.”
The old man was in a quandary. If he handed the thief to the police and they were to take down his testimony, a huge scandal would erupt that might scorch everything in sight. And it was not reasonable to keep him a prisoner in the house forever. The old man then rushed to ask the men whom the thief claimed he had raped to come over, and sought their advice. They spoke not a word but drew their knives and descended upon the old man and the thief. They tore them to pieces, and their corpses disappeared.
When only a few weeks had passed, the women of Dhaghbit went back to listening to their husbands’ orders with a shudder, rushed to obey them, and wished that Dhaghbit would vanish under the snows.