The peddler was a lonely man who looked like a beggar. He was a homeless wanderer who used to sell rattraps. Once he knocked the door of a crofter who was equally lonely like him for a night stay. He was received by the crofter warmly and cheerfully. Crofter was proud of his cow that gave him enough milk. So he told the peddler about the thirty kronors he got by selling the milk of the cow and he used to keep his money in a leather pouch that hung from a nail in the window frame. He felt that the peddler did not believe him so he showed the money to convince him.
Having stolen the money, the peddler didn't find it safe to walk along the public highway. So he went through the woods and got lost. Here, he thought that the whole world was a rattrap and the money he had stolen was a bait and he himself was trapped in it. Later, he regretted for stealing the crofter's money so much so that when Edla invited him for Christmas, he returned the stolen money to her.