The Robber And The Three Boxes

Long ago a man who was a robber came home to his wife, looking disturbed and unhappy.
"Why, husband", she asked him, "What has happened to you?".
"I don't know", replied the man sitting down, "A strange, frightening, wonderous thing".
Then he told her that, in the desert, he had seen three men on camels; richly dressed men and had thought to himself, "They look like men with much to steal. I will rob them".
But then when, drawing his sharp sword, he had approached them and told them to hand over what they had the men had put down three boxes before him and when he had opened the first of the boxes, he had found it to contain gold.
"Gold", said his wife, listening, her eyes lighting up greedily, "Thats wonderful".
"Yes so I thought aswell", said the robber, "But then I reached into the box to take the gold and intead of gold in my hand I held only a scorpion that stung me, pushing its stinger deep into my palm".
"A scorpion?", asked his wife, "You mean you didn't get the gold?".
"No", said her husband, shaking his head.
"Well what about the other boxes?", she asked, "What was in them?".
"In the second box was a jar. A jar of some sweet smelling perfume", said the robber.
"Oh, perfume", said his wife, smiling, "I could do with that. Where is it?".
"I didn't get that either", said the Robber, sadly, "For no sooner had I reached into the box to take the jar of perfume when the scent of it became a snake wrapped around the jar and then it tried to bite my hand".
The woman looked doubtful.
"Are you sure you haven't been drinking a jar of something and just imagined all this?", she asked.
"No", said the robber with a deeply serious and sober look upon his face, "I swear it is what happened".
"Alright", said his wife, "Well what about the third box? What did it contain?".
"A jar of scented oil", said the robber.
"Well did you get that at least?", asked his wife.
"I tried to", said the robber, "But the moment I touched the jar it became red hot. So hot that I couldn't touch its handle without burning my hand".
He rubbed his hand as if he could still feel the burning upon it.
His wife shook her head in disbelief.
"Well these were obviously magicians of some kind", said his wife, "I hope you punished them for their tricks".
"I was going to", said her husband, "I shouted to them, angrilly, that I would kill them all for making a fool of me but then even my own sword became as hot as burning coal so that I had to cry out in pain and let go of it. Then I was so embarassed that I couldn't face them and just ran off".
"So you met three wealthy looking men in the desert and you didn't get anything?", said his wife, sounding disappointed.
"No", said the robber solemnly.
"Well who were these men anyway?", she asked.
"I don't know", said the robber, "But they said they were going to Bethlehem to see a king".