This paper argues that a jātaka story in which the Buddha in the former life was a thief requires creativity and ingenuity in order to maintain enjoyment of the story and to avoid （or diminish） any inappropriate image of the Buddha. Although a handsome thief, a picaro, a trickster, is an extremely tempting character for storytellers and an audience （or readers）, it tends to be problematic from the viewpoint of Buddhist teachings. In ancient India, there existed a type of story beginning with a motif in which a rich woman falls in love with a thief. The 14th story in the Vetālapañcaviṃśatikā tells us that a rich merchant’s daughter is fascinated by a thief being dragged to the execution place, and they marry by the grace of Śiva in the end. The past story of the Kaṇaverajātaka in the Pāli Jātaka tells us that a courtesan is captivated by a good-looking thief in the above situation, and she makes a scapegoat to save his life, but he hurts her and runs away. According to the principle of identification in Jātaka stories, by samodhāna （application） the Buddha is the thief and Yasodharā is the courtesan in their respective former lives. The Śyāmājātaka in the Mahāvastu is similar to the Pāli version in structure, but there the Buddha in the former life is not a thief but a horse-dealer misidentified as a thief, and Yaśodharā is a courtesan with much more cunning behaviours and a deceptive mind. The Mahāvastu version is a unique one in which the Buddha-figure is almost unproblematic and Yaśodharā plays the role of a trickster.
