Jaidee arrives at the temple dressed in his white shirt uniform for his public humiliation. He confesses to Trade Minister Akkarat and General Pracha that he has accepted bribes and has been avaricious. Pracha strips him of his position. Jaidee will pay penance for nine years by residing in a monastery, and he will lose all of his possessions. His sons will be adopted, and the family name erased. Jaidee confronts Akkarat about the whereabouts of Chaya but Akkarat says he has no idea what Jaidee is talking about. Jaidee threatens to kill Akkarat, who tells him, “you’re lucky that General Pracha is your friend. If I were him, I would have turned those two boys of yours out into the street to beg for blister rust scraps. That would have been a true lesson” (145).

Anderson and Carlyle are in the compound of the Environment Ministry and have just witnessed the humiliation of Jaidee. Carlyle has somehow engineered this ceremony as a check to the white shirts and to Pracha. As a result, the merchants whose goods Jaidee burnt are paid reparations. Anderson tells Carlyle he wants to meet