Before the coronation bells had died away, Mac the Knife was sitting with the whores of Turnbridge! The whores betray him. It is Thursday evening.
- Crook-fingered Jake reads the newspaper in the whorehouse while the ladies go about their chores.
- Mac walks in and Jenny reads his palm. She says that a woman whose name begins with J will betray him.
- She goes outside and calls Constable Smith.
- Mac and Jenny sing a ballad about how they used to be lovers, although he beat her up, and how Jenny became pregnant.
- Constable Smith takes Mac away, and Mrs. Peachum pays the ladies for their services to Macheath.
- Jake is too busy reading to notice the commotion.