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LAW AND JUSTICE . They formed us that the old man had stolen the rice and that the shameful parade was his punishment. Should he have refused to comply, he would have been thrown out of the village. We asked the men if a jail term, as would be the punishment in Den Pasar, would not be more severe or more effcetive than a single afternoon of public disgrace, but they were all emphatic that it was just the reverse; a thief, they said, treated in this manner will never steal again, while locking him up in the Government would not help anvbody; they would give him free food, he would not be shamed, and besides the company would make him worse.
As the parade resumed the march with the resigned old man at the head,
a compassionate passer-by handed him a little package of betel and sirih
to chew on the way. Later I was told Mud of a similar case where the
thief was paraded all over town with the pair of old shoes he had stolen,
hung around neck. It was significant that during our entire stay in
Bali, with the house always open and filled with Balinese visitors,
we never lost anything.
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