at length the judge cried, quite out of breath, "i will give you your life if you will only stop fiddling." the good servant thereupon had compassion, took his fiddle and hung it round his neck again, and stepped down the ladder. then he went up to the jew, who was lying upon the ground panting for breath, and said, "you rascal, now confess, whence you got the money, or i will take my fiddle and begin to play again." "i stole it, i stole it!" cried he; "but you have honestly earned it." so the judge had the jew taken to the gallows and hanged as a thief.