It contains twelve stories, seven of which were previously published in the magazine Pandji Poestaka, as well as an introduction by Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana.

These stories are generally humorous in nature, and presented with a diction that shows strong east Sumatran influences.

Released in response to the commercial success of Muhammad Kasim's collection Teman Doedoek, Kawan Bergeloet has been reprinted several times and received positive critical appraisal.

[1] These early stories used vernacular Malay and were often humorous or derived from fairy tales or detective fiction.

[3] The first collection of short stories in the Indonesian literary canon, Muhammad Kasim's Teman Doedoek, was published by Balai Pustaka in 1937.

[4] Teman Doedoek was read by Soeman Hs,[5] a Bengkalis-born teacher who had already gained popularity as a writer of detective fiction.

[6] Soeman, once a student of Kasim's, had also experimented with more humorous story-telling approaches, including in his novel Pertjobaan Setia[7] as well as in the numerous short stories he had published through Pandji Pustaka.

[8] After the commercial success of Teman Doedoek, Balai Pustaka sought to release a new short story collection; thus, Soeman was contacted.

[4] The first edition included an article on Soeman, written by Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana, which had previously been published in the January 1936 issue of Pedoman Pembatja.

[8] "Piloe" (Perfected Spelling: "Pilu", meaning "Melancholia"), follows a mother who goes to the port with her child, Mak Jam, to meet her husband Hajji Saleh.

[8] "Salah Paham" (meaning "Misunderstanding") follows Kari Boengsoe, a gambir merchant, who travels to Singapore after turning a tidy profit.

[8] "Salah Sangka" (meaning "Mistaken Expectations") follows Malim Boengsoe, a respected man from a small village, who—having had four daughters—desperately wants a son.

However, his expensive set of black clothing, which he must wear during the Eid ceremonies, is accidentally left at Aminah's home.

Pretending to be sick, the man goes to Aminah and asks her to cover him with clothing and light a fire to keep him warm.

[8] "Fatwa Membawa Ketjewa" (Perfected Spelling: "Fatwa Membawa Kecewa", meaning "Preaching Brings Disappointment") follows a Lebai Saleh, a labourer and student of Islam who is known for being greedy and miserly and was once driven out of a village for offering an insultingly low bride price.

A fellow villager goes to see Malik and asks why he abandoned his criminal ways and embraced Islam.

Malik tells his visitor that, fifteen years previously, he and a friend were travelling through the forests when they saw some people burying a box.

[4] "Selimoet Bertoeah" (Perfected Spelling: "Selimut Bertuah", meaning "The Magical Blanket") follows Tji' Dang, a man who is terrified of his wife.

[8] "Papan Reklame" (meaning "Billboards") follows two shopkeeper, a man and a woman, who compete to offer the lowest prices.

[4] The Indonesian literary scholar Ajip Rosidi writes that the vast majority of the stories in Kawan Bergeloet are meant as comedy.

[22] John Wolff, the author of Indonesian Readings, sees Soeman as using "flourishes which echo folk-tale stories".

[27] Rosidi, identifying bergeloet as meaning "to laugh", writes that the title was meant to indicate that the book was intended for entertainment purposes, to be read in one's spare time.

[23] Soeman gained recognition as a pioneer of the Indonesian short story for Kawan Bergeloet, and over subsequent decades was commonly mentioned with Kasim in histories of the literary form.

[22] Rosidi considers some of the stories' comic incidents to be overly complicated, but attributes this to Soeman's previous activity in the detective genre.