Marik, First Priest of Carthule, has welcomed the first Earthman to reach his desert world as a sacred guest, and the law of hospitality forbids any harm to one who sleeps in the god’s temple. Then the visitor pockets the temple’s great jewel, and the priests must find a way to recover it without violating the rites they live by.
A neat, ironic early story from Robert Silverberg, first printed in Infinity in 1957. Download the free EPUB.