Highwaymen seem to have stopped a wagon with travelers in the midst of a barren landscape. More wagons and travelers on foot appear along the trail in the background.

This work is difficult to interpret. It may just as well represent a violent assalt as a simple everyday scene in a landscape. At any rate, it shows how Brueghel composed this sort of scene on the basis of various planes that reach back into the distance. The grey sky in the background has an opening through which light reaches some of the hills, adding to the feeling of perspective.