The ʾOud Khels are the thief tribe, and as it was impossible to stop their depredations by other means, for the chiefs of the tribe said their land was unproductive and they had no other means of living, the late Amir formed the bulk of them into a regiment, and gave the rest of the tribe to understand that they must stop stealing from their fellow-countrymen, telling them that if they wanted to steal they must go to India to do it. Many of the rifles stolen from Peshawur and other Indian cantonments could be accounted for by these people. The ʾOud Khels used to give the former Amirs of the country a good deal of trouble, and they resisted the various feeble attempts made at different times to keep them in order; but Amir Abdur Rahman was too strong for them, as he was for most of the lawless people of the country. There is a story told by the people of Kabul of Amir Shere Ali and the chief of the ʾOud Khels. The latter had been sent for to be told that unless the tribe stopped their thieving, which had of late been very flagrant, the Amir would have each robber caught and hanged. The chief told him that no one could catch an ʾOud Khel in the exercise of his profession, for they were all past masters, and in proof of what he said he undertook to rob the sleeping shawl from under the Amir himself that night, and consented to being hanged if he was caught while doing so. The next morning the chief appeared before the Amir and produced the sleeping shawl from under his coat, handed it to him, saying that he had redeemed his word. The Amir was astounded that the man could pass his guards, make his way undetected into his sleeping chamber, and there take from under him the shawl he slept on, without waking him; and from that time, it was said, Amir Shere Ali left the ʾOud Khels alone. The ʾOud Khel regiment used to take their turn of guard in the workshops, each regiment in turn supplies a company for a month on this duty, and their captain I found to be a simple-minded man, and having helped some of his men during the first cholera epidemic that occurred while I was there, we became acquainted. He used to come to my office at times during the dinner-hour and chat with me, and one day I asked him to teach me the Pushtoo language, as I wished to learn it and had no book to study it from. He seemed uncomfortable when I asked him and remained silent, but after a time he said he could not teach languages, because he was not accustomed to it, but he would teach me to thieve, and he undertook to make me so efficient that in a few weeks no one would be able to catch me doing it. The ʾOud Khel regiment was disbanded by the Amir at one time, but they at once took to their old profession, and complaints were so loud that the Amir had them enrolled again.