A JUDGE was awakened by the noise of a lawyer prosecuting a Thief. 
Rising in wrath he was about to sentence the Thief to life
imprisonment when the latter said:

  "I beg that you will set me free, and I will some day requite your
kindness."

  Pleased and flattered to be bribed, although by nothing but an
empty promise, the Judge let him go.  Soon afterward he found that
it was more than an empty promise, for, having become a Thief, he
was himself set free by the other, who had become a Judge.