The Invisible Man—Kemp—breaks into the vicarage in the wee small hours of Whit Monday. He has run out of money and needs to pay Mrs. Hall for his boarding at the inn. She's already asked him to vacate his room, but as that will disrupt his plans, he can't go just yet, and so he needs to get his hands on some easy money.

Mrs. Bunting, the Reverend Bunting's wife, wakes up with a start, feeling that the bedroom door has been opened and closed. Without waking her husband, she sits up and listens carefully to the sound of feet coming out of the adjoining dressing room and walking towards the staircase. Increasingly disturbed, she rouses her husband, who goes downstairs to investigate.

As Reverend Bunting steps inside his study, he hears a fumbling sound in the desk drawer. Then there's a loud sneeze, yet Bunting cannot see the intruder. He goes back to his bedroom to retrieve a poker to use as a weapon. As he approaches the study once more, this time with Mrs. Bunting in tow, he looks through the crack in the door. Again, he can't see the intruder, but he and Mrs. Bunting can hear the sound of someone handling money.

Bunting bursts into the study, brandishing his poker, and shouts at the burglar to surrender. But the study seems empty, even though Reverend and Mrs. Bunting can still hear someone moving around in the room. They search high and low but can find no one. And to make things even stranger, a candle has been lit and the housekeeping money has been taken from the desk.

Suddenly, there's a violent sneeze in the passage and the Buntings rush out. The kitchen door slams; the intruder must be inside the kitchen, they think. Yet when Bunting opens the kitchen door and peeps inside, the burglar's nowhere to be seen. At that moment, Bunting sees the back door start to open, seemingly all by itself, before closing with a slam that causes Mrs. Bunting's candle to flicker. The mysterious intruder has gone.