Some years ago Ananse left his town of Inyati on a journey, having with him a boy who carried his small leather bag. Soon they came to a certain town, where Ananse was buying something in the market, when a thief of Twala fell on Ananse and his bag, saying, ‘This is my leather bag, and all that is in it is mine.’

Then Ananse cried out loudly for help, ‘Ho, people, one and all, please help me and save me from the hand of this worst of men’. But the spectators said, ‘Come, both of you, before the Judge.’ So they took Ananse and Twala before the Judge. The Judge asked them the reason for their fighting and quarrelling. Said Ananse, ‘We have a difference, and we seek your judgement.’ Then the Judge said, ‘Which of you is it that complains of the other?’ At once Twala came forward, and said, ‘Judge, this white bag is my bag, and all that is in it is mine. It was lost, and I found it with this worst man Kwaku Ananse and his son Ntikuma.’ Said the Judge, ‘When did you lose it?’ ‘Only yesterday’ said Twala, ‘and I have had a sleepless night because of its loss.’

Then the Judge told Twala that if the bag was his he must tell him what was in it. Twala began: ‘Some water bottles, a she cat, two chairs, a cow with two calves and a lion and two lionesses. Also it contains a kitchen with two doors, and the town of Takoradi, and the railway line from Luanda to Malanje, and the airport of Accra, and the island of Madagascar, and the house of your Honour, and the Map of the New World, and the River Volta, and the House of Broadcasting which will broadcast this news, and the land between the Gold Coast and Dahomey, and four Gold Coast girls, four beggars, two ships and thousands of people who are watching the football match between the Gold Coast and Nigeria. And the bench of Zulu magistrates, and a number of Bamangwato, my country-men, who will assure you, that the bag is my bag.’