A phlegmatic pickpocket is arrested and taken to his cell. As he is an unusually wily customer, he is bound by fetters and chained to the wall. Speedily putting these off, he is locked up by the enraged warders in a chest, but escapes and is finally thrown into the river tied up in a sack. Coming up from the water again, perfectly dry and safe, he makes a bicycle for himself and rides off furiously, springing ultimately onto a passing train which bars his passage. In this way he is carried along on his bicycle for some distance, but reaching the river again, he descends on his machine, performs a few revolutions in mid-air, the reflection of the bicycle showing up clearly on the face of the water, and then lands in a sumptuous room. The police follow, but are baffled by the continued disappearing tricks of the clever thief, who dissolves from view and reappears in the most unexpected places. At last he is captured in the police station itself and carried once more to his cell, but crashes through the iron bars with little trouble, leaving his warders safely under lock and key.