Euclio is persuaded to marry his daughter to his rich neighbor, an elderly bachelor named Megadorus, who happens to be the uncle of Lyconides.
From surviving summaries of the play, we know that Euclio eventually recovers his pot of gold and gives it to Lyconides and Phaedria, who marry in a happy ending.
In the Penguin Classics edition of the play, translator E. F. Watling devised an ending as it might have been originally, based on the summaries and a few surviving scraps of dialogue.
The scheme of the Aulularia is incomplete but the surviving part is as follows: The second and fourth sections each have musical passages in two contrasting metres.
[5] Moore, noting the somewhat jarring rhythm of the colon, or ending, of the line, writes: "The versus reizianus finds itself in some of Plautus' funniest scenes, as when Olympio discovers that his "bride" has a beard (Cas.
"[6] Versus reiziani are also found, mixed with other metres ending in cola reiziana, in lines 153–160, where Eunomia is trying to convince her brother of the importance of getting married, while he resists her suggestions.
Plautus' frequent theme of clever servants outwitting their supposed superiors finds its place in this play too.
Another play, Querolus seu Aulularia, was at one time ascribed to Plautus but is now believed to be a late 4th-century Latin imitation.
At about the same time it was also used by the Danish Hieronymus Justesen Ranch (1539–1607) as the basis for his play Karrig Nidding (The Stingy Miser).
The very successful Dutch play, Warenar, based on Aulularia, was written by Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft and Samuel Coster in 1617.
In 1629, the German poet laureate Joannes Burmeister published a Neo-Latin adaptation, also called Aulularia, that reworked Plautus' comedy to a play featuring Achan and Rahab from the biblical Book of Joshua.
[11] Molière's French adaptation, L'Avare of 1668, was even more successful and thereafter served as the basis for dramatic imitations, rather than Plautus' work.