The interaction of thiazole and thiazolidine with a strong (similar to2 x 10(16) W/cm(2)) fs laser field has been studied at lambda = 790 nm. by means of time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry. The observed relative abundance of the doubly charged intact parent ion in thiazolidine is higher than that of thiazole, while the laser-molecule coupling strength is found to be much more efficient for the aromatic (thiazole) than the nonaromatic (thiazolidine) molecule. The mass spectra of thiazolidine are attributed to a combination of field ionization with subsequent multiphoton processes. It is also concluded, that direct Coulomb explosion within the transient multiply charged parent ions leads to the production of multiply charged atomic ions,