1) King Ramses III hires his master builder, Horemheb, to construct a secret tomb to store his treasures in.
2) Horemheb deceives King Ramses by building a secret passage in the tomb and sharing the tomb plans with his sons.
3) One of Horemheb's sons is caught stealing treasures and killed, but the other son continues thieving using his cleverness.
4) After multiple failed attempts to catch the thief, King Ramses decides to pardon him due to his cleverness.
1) King Ramses III hires his master builder, Horemheb, to construct a secret tomb to store his treasures in.
2) Horemheb deceives King Ramses by building a secret passage in the tomb and sharing the tomb plans with his sons.
3) One of Horemheb's sons is caught stealing treasures and killed, but the other son continues thieving using his cleverness.
4) After multiple failed attempts to catch the thief, King Ramses decides to pardon him due to his cleverness.
1) King Ramses III hires his master builder, Horemheb, to construct a secret tomb to store his treasures in.
2) Horemheb deceives King Ramses by building a secret passage in the tomb and sharing the tomb plans with his sons.
3) One of Horemheb's sons is caught stealing treasures and killed, but the other son continues thieving using his cleverness.
4) After multiple failed attempts to catch the thief, King Ramses decides to pardon him due to his cleverness.
1) King Ramses III hires his master builder, Horemheb, to construct a secret tomb to store his treasures in.
2) Horemheb deceives King Ramses by building a secret passage in the tomb and sharing the tomb plans with his sons.
3) One of Horemheb's sons is caught stealing treasures and killed, but the other son continues thieving using his cleverness.
4) After multiple failed attempts to catch the thief, King Ramses decides to pardon him due to his cleverness.
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Norie Rose M.
Asto CE 512 – CE52FC2
The Treasure Thief
There are two personas which were represented by the three main characters namely, King Ramses
III, Horemheb, and the Treasure Thief (one of Horemheb’s son). King Ramses III represents with
the owner while Horemheb and the Treasure Thief are the contractors. If the myth will be viewed
and understood literally, King Ramses III is very powerful in the land of Egypt and he can do
anything he want to do in his land. He is considered to be the wisest person among the land due to
his victory in various countless battles. Because of winning, King Ramses III gained a lot of
wealth, golds and silvers, and other kinds of treasures which urged him to desire a secret tomb to
protect his treasures. In order to do that, he called his Horemheb (his master builder) to build his
desired secret tomb. Pharoah Rameses III told Horemheb that there must be no person other than
him will be able to go inside the tomb to prevent the loss of his treasure. The whole construction
of the secret tomb was entrusted to Horemheb. Horemheb was well aware of the power of King
Ramses III in the whole land, despite of knowing this, he broke the Pharoah’s trust. He created a
secret passage in the secret tomb and made it not visible to the guards. Also, the master plan of the
tomb was shared to his two sons before he died.
The two sons of Horemheb went inside the secret tomb to steal silvers and golds of the Pharoah
then he noticed that his treasure is decreasing at an alarming rate so he put traps on his golds. Then,
a son of Horemheb was caught in the trap then asked his brother to behead him to save their whole
family. Because King Ramses III will be able to identify them and their whole family will be
punished by death for stealing. The brother made a very hard decision and he did what the trapped
sibling told him. Then, the guards of the King found the headless naked body and hang it on the
city gates in order to catch the treasure thief as per the King’s instruction. Horemheb’s wife saw
the painful sight of the headless naked body of his dead son and told his alive son to retrieve the
body. The treasure thief was able to retrieve the body without being recognized due to his
cleverness. The guards that are guarding the body were punished by the King. The last strategy
that the King conducted was involved by his daughter. He used his daughter to trap the treasure thief by being able to marry her if he will tell the cleverest and wickedest thing he did in his entire
life. Being recognized by the treasure thief the real purpose of the princess, he went up to the
princess with a fake arm and told her that he cut off the head of his brother caught in the trap, and
stole the body under the guards’ noses. The princess realized that he was the man the Pharoah is
looking, he called in the guards but the treasure thief quickly lost in the dark. So, the Pharoah failed
to catch him three times due to treasure thief’s cleverness. At last, the Pharoah held an
announcement that he will pardon the sins of the treasure thief and reward him richly because he
was too clever to be punished. Lastly, the treasure thief married the royal princess and served
faithfully King Ramses III.
The owner (Pharoah) was deceived by the master builder. The master builder was very courageous
for taking such action against the Pharoah. But, despite of this the treasure thief was able to get
everything due to his cleverness.
On my opinion based on the myth, the contractor had the control and not on the owner. The
structure of the owner will be built by the contractor and so he had the full authority on the overall
construction of the said structure. The owner knows nothing about what was doing by the
contractor on the structure and he has to trust him that he will be not do anything to disappoint the
owner. Also, the contractor can freely steal his ‘treasures’ with his own ability. That is why,
contractors are clever and courageous. With just a little mistake, they can be punished. I really pity
the owner. This can be prevented if he is also the contractor of his own structure. Nowadays, it is
really hard to trust other people because people are selfish in nature. You have to trust your own
abilities and wisdom in order to protect what is yours. Or the owner can hire someone closest to
him or a person who doesn’t know to deceive other people and he must compensate well his chosen
contractor.
That is also where the saying, “all contractors are thieves”. Contractors can use substandard
materials in order to lessen the amount that will be spent in the construction and so that they can have a very big kickback. The owners really need honest contractors and who is practicing with
integrity. Contractors should must feel accountable and responsible on the trust that was given by
the owners to them no matter how high their level of cleverness is. Because unlike the Pharoah’s
time, the act of deceiving is punishable by law with no other exceptions in the present. The
credibility of the contractor is at risk in these cases.
