"She Fell Among Thieves" is a Short Story by Robert Edmond Alter that was originally published in 1964 in Argosy. The setting is Jordan, in the Dead Sea area nearby the border with Israel, where an archeological dig is being overseen by two Americans who commence to make the most frustrating find of their lives. The punch line relies entirely on a particular biblical tale and knowing which one beforehand will spoil the read.
Miller and his mentor Tanner supervise the excavation of a small building in Jordan. At dusk, just when rain begins to trickle in, an opening is made. Miller enters alone and lays eyes upon a marble white statue of a woman, which is so lifelike that he instinctively almost greets it. The level of detail is curious enough, but Miller is also fascinated by her turned-back gaze which he can't get a read on. Tanner, when shown the statue, sees something else too: dollar signs, provided they can smuggle the statue out of the country. Covered by the downpour, they load the statue into their shoddy car's truck bed. The first hurdle they encounter is a single Jordanian border guard, whom Tanner ambushes and badly injures if not kills. The next is a Jordanian border post, of which the guards check the truck bed and let the confused duo continue their journey. At the Israeli border post, they check the truck bed for themselves and find nothing but water. Tanner succumbs to mad laughter, realizing far too late that the statue was made of salt. It was Lot's wife.
"She Fell Among Thieves" was adapted into the episode "Would You Believe It?" of Tales of the Unexpected in 1981.
"She Fell Among Thieves" provides examples of the following tropes:
- Adventurer Archaeologist: Tanner is a treasure hunter more than he is an archeologist. He's wanted in both Mexico and Cambodia for smuggling artifacts. Miller joins in on his illegal activities when they decide to steal the statue.
- Ancient Tomb: It is reasonable to assume from the statue's nature that the building she was found in was set up to be her tomb. It's an austere construction, but that's not surprising given what the circumstances must have been like when it was built.
- Covers Always Lie: Robert McGinnis's illustration for the original publication of "She Fell Among Thieves" shoots for the statue's sex appeal and ignores most of the description given of it as well as anything it can be assumed to look like based on the biblical tale. The blurb claiming that the men are up against "all the supernatural forces of the ancient world" is also more than a little exaggerated.
- Cue the Rain: Subverted. It rains starting the third sentence of "She Fell Among Thieves" and the meaning of the rain changes as the story unfolds. At first, it is a convenient cover for the theft of the statue since none of the local diggers stay outside. Then, it becomes a nuisance because of the leaky car. Then, although the men don't know it at the time, the rain is what prevents them from being arrested at the Jordanian border post (and possibly getting involved in a shoot-out). Finally, the men learn of the statue's destruction due to the rain and how everything they've done in the past few hours won't have a payoff. By this time, the rain has dwindled to a sullen mist.
- Dirty Business: The attack on the first border guard is neither Tanner's nor Miller's proudest moment. It may have killed him and otherwise they've left a man who needs medical attention abandoned to fend for himself. Tanner has no qualms about it, but Miller does. It's the one event in the story that showcases a moral difference between the two men.
- Don't Look Back: The statue's pose includes a turned-back gaze that is unreadable to either of the men. It is one of several clues to its identity.
- Grave Robbing: Accidentally so, because the men didn't know they were grave robbing because they didn't know what they were digging up at the time. The statue they stole was the remains of Lot's wife.
- Greed: Tanner is vulnerable to this vice, Miller merely open to it. Tanner's reputation in the world of archeology is in shreds due to his smuggling scandals and as demonstrated by his attack on the border guard, he doesn't shy away from murder if there's money on the line. By the time Miller realizes the moral difference between himself and Tanner, he's already in deep and Tanner has the gun aimed at him.
- Karmic Twist Ending: The men accept the rain seeping into their car as a small price for the cover it provides while they steal a valuable archeological find. It causes them to end up with nothing but a truck bed full of Dead Sea water.
- Magic Realism: Everything about the story could happen in everyday real life. The one exception is the statue's creation.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The rain may be just rain, a much needed respite for the "bone-dry dirt". Or maybe it was sent just like "Noah's deluge [once had]".
- Narrator: Miller is the narrator of "She Fell Among Thieves".
- Only in It for the Money: Tanner's foray into archeology seems to be motivated solely by financial gain. Miller sees the possibility of easy money as a perk of the job not to ignore, hence why he agrees to smuggle the statue out of Jordan, but he isn't solely motivated by it.
- Rule of Three: Miller and Tanner thrice have to deal with border guards.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: The protagonists are left empty-handed after they've inadvertently destroyed a statue of unimaginable historical and religious value. They have committed a grave act of violence towards an innocent man and he might very well be dead. Tanner's gone mad. There is not a thing that is better at the end of the story than it is at the beginning.
- Taken for Granite: The statue is Lot's wife, who was turned into salt for looking back towards Sodom. The men mistake the solid white material for marble.
- Villainous Breakdown: Tanner goes bonkers when he deduces what the statue was and what trick fate played on him. He cries, laughs, and raves about the biblical tale until the medic at the Israeli border post gives him a shot to calm him down.
- Walking Spoiler: The biblical tale that "She Fell Among Thieves" relies on is the fate of Lot's wife, who looked back when fleeing from Sodom despite God's orders not to. As punishment, she was turned into a statue (pillar) of salt. It is this statue the men ignorantly get their hands on and drag outside when it's raining!
