Early one morning in July 1286, not long after the cathedral bell tolled daybreak, the familia discovered three men of Bologna—Bertolino, Bernabè, and a tailor named Giacomo the Mute—each carrying a knife. Besides the weapon, Giacomo had his clothes stuffed full of pears and other fruits. Two days later the podestà's judge, named Ugo, opened an inquest against the three men as “malefactors who are said to be robbers, thieves, assassins, and despoilers of the vineyards and orchards of the city of Bologna.” He questioned Bertolino accordingly: Do you go to vineyards by night to despoil them of grapes and fruits? Were you out at night to put ladders to the houses of the good men of the city of Bologna in order to steal from them? Were you carrying weapons in order to assassinate anyone? Are you an assassin? Bertolino confessed to carrying the knife, but he denied the rest of these allegations. Bernabè faced a similar battery of questions, but likewise denied being a thief or assassin.

The perceived link between thieves and the night is ancient, of course, and partially explains the judge's line of questioning. These defendants had apparently been out at night armed and, in at least one case, picking fruit in someone's orchard. However, the interrogation of another resident of Bologna named Franco—discovered bearing prohibited arms on the same day as the three wayfarers above, but during the daytime and without suspicious cargo—points to other factors at work.