Well, you probably did it at the same time. Or Mala did it slightly before but it still let you duck inside for whatever reason. Clearly it's a bug that benefits you, as you're able to beg for the coins you'll so desperately need!
That said, you did this the day before successfully. I'd suggest placing some sort of timer that prevents someone that recently initiated an attack from re-entering, say, 5 minutes. It's kind of ridiculous that you can wait 24 hours to attack someone and then have them flee to safety within seconds, while you were camping their currently tied down army. I wouldn't care, but the cities aren't going to be captured anytime soon, and for the market to actually work, cities definitely can't be the place bandits are safest.
