Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 3 (of 6)
Science
Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 3 (of 6)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
boys who had run alongside of us to search for provender. One of
them found a jar of bran in the shop of a corn-dealer and paying
for the provision brought it, together with the jar, under
promise that on the morrow he would carry back the vessel. Then
he began to take out the bran by handfuls in the dark and to set
it before the horses.˚And as the morn began to dawn Shahrazad
held her peace till
The end of the Six Hundred and Twenty-fourth Night.
Then said she:--I have heard, O auspicious king, that Hasan al-
Habbal thus continued his story:--So as the slave boy took out
the bran by handfuls and set it before the horses, suddenly his
hand came upon a piece of cloth wherein was somewhat heavy. He
brought it to me even as he found it and said, "See, is not this
cloth the very one of whose loss thou hast ofttimes spoken to
us?" I took it and wondering with great wonder knew it was the
self same piece of stuff wherein I had tied up the hundred and
four-score and ten Ashrafis before hiding them in the jar of
bran. Then said I to my friends, "O my lords, it hath pleased
Almighty Allah, ere we parted, I and you, to bear me witness of
my words and to stablish that I told you naught save whatso was
very sooth." And I resumed, addressing Sa'di, "See here the other
sum of money, that is, the hundred and ninety Ashrafis which thou
gayest me and which I tied up in this very piece of cloth I now
recognise." Then I sent for the earthen jar that they might see
it, and also bade carry it to my wife that she also might bear
witness, an it be or be not the very bran-jar which she gave in
exchange for fuller's earth. Anon she sent us word and said, "Yea
verily I know it well. 'Tis the same jar which I had filled with
bran." Accordingly Sa'di owned that he was wrong and said to
S'ad, "Now I know that thou speakest truth, and am convinced that
wealth cometh not by wealth; but only by the grace of Almighty
Allah doth a poor man become a rich man." And he begged pardon
for his mistrust and unbelief. We accepted his excuses whereupon
we retired to rest and early on the morrow my two friends bade me
adieu and journeyed home wards with full persuasion that I had
done no wrong and had not squandered the moneys they had given
me.--Now when the Caliph Harun al-Rashid had heard the story of
Khwajah Hasan to the end, he said, "I have known thee of old by
fair report of thee from the folk who, one and all, declare that
thou art a good man and true. Moreover the self same diamond
whereby thou hast attained to so great riches is now in my
treasury; so I would fain send for Sa'di forthright that he may
see it with his own eyes, and weet for certain that not by means
of money do men become or rich or poor." The Prince of True
Believers said moreover to Khwajah Hasan al-Habbal, "Go now and
tell thy tale to my treasurer that he may take it down in writing
for an everlasting memorial, and place the writ in the treasury
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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