It won the 1956 Blind War Veterans’ Prize for best radio play and the literary award of the newspaper Tribune de Lausanne.

[1] Alfredo Traps, a sales representative, whose car breaks down during a trip in the provinces, finds lodging for the night in a house of a retired judge.

[2] Peter Spycher tried to identify the story and suggested that "Le Voleur" in the volume Mademoiselle Fifi might be the one Dürrenmatt had in mind.

In the radio-play version, Traps gets up in the morning, collects his repaired car and drives away completely unperturbed by the last night’s trial.

In the prose version, he hangs himself after receiving his death sentence, leaving the old men dismayed that he has taken their game too far and ruined their perfect evening.