In these cases it was vindictiveness and animosity that led to the plot, which was only unmasked by the astuteness and perseverance of the police. But greed also is a potent incentive to false accusation of crime, and thus it was with Khan Beg. Coveting the inheritance of a rich relative, Ibrahim Beg, whose heir he was, he laid a deep scheme to secure it without waiting for Ibrahim's death. Khan Beg was a dissolute wastrel who had been reduced to poverty by his own extravagance, and who knew that he might expect no further help from his kinsman. Ibrahim was married to a young and handsome wife, Chumbelee, with whom he did not live on the very best of terms, due mainly to the lying stories of a confidential servant, an accomplice of Khan Beg's. One day in a fit of fury he forgot himself so far as to raise his hand against Chumbelee. The woman, goaded by pain and disgrace, screamed aloud in the full hearing of neighbours and servants. Next morning she was gone, and information was laid at the nearest police station by the manservant above mentioned that Chumbelee had been murdered. Officers proceeded at once to Ibrahim Beg's house, and searched the premises. It was soon seen that some earth in the courtyard had been recently moved; on digging, the headless body of a woman was found a little way down. The body was identified by the manservant, who swore to a bangle found upon one arm, remembering that he had once taken it for his mistress to be mended. A slave-girl who did the household work also declared that the body was Chumbelee's. Ibrahim Beg was, of course, apprehended, and locked up, vainly protesting his innocence. His own story was that he had been stupefied, he knew not how, by some narcotic, and after his violent quarrel with his wife, which he did not deny, he had fallen asleep until a late hour the following morning. His jealousy and ill-treatment of his wife were notorious, and told greatly against him; the seclusion in which he had always kept her also militated against him now. So few people had seen her that there was no more evidence of identity than that already adduced. All that could be said in his favour was that without the head, absolute recognition was impossible. Ibrahim Beg himself stoutly denied that the corpse was Chumbelee's. The trial proceeded, and ended in his conviction; the case was referred to a superior court, which deemed the evidence conclusive; the sentence of death passed was about to be executed, and Khan Beg was on the point of obtaining his ends and acquiring considerable wealth.