This is one of a series of comic stories about the Minerva Club, an association of warm-hearted criminals. The others are The Ransom of Angelo, Flint's Diamonds, Three Heads are better than one, and A Stroke of Genius.
Dog Downey works for the master criminal Maxy Martingale. His job is to be shut in a crate which is delivered to a house worth burgling, and then break out of it during the night. The plan goes wrong, but Downey eventually comes out of it with a wife.
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine #246, May, 1964.