how thou stolest the money?” Answered he, “By Allah, I stole it not, nor did I ever set eyes on it till I brought it forth of the earth!” Quoth I, “How so?” and quoth he, “Know that the cause of my falling into your hands was my parent’s imprecation against me; because I entreated her evilly yesternight and beat her and she said to me, ‘By Allah, O my son, the Lord shall assuredly gar the oppressor prevail over thee!’ Now she is a pious woman. So I went out forthright and thou sawest me on my way and didst that which thou didst; and when beating was prolonged on me, my senses failed me and I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Fetch it.’ So I said to you what I said and the Speaker[111] guided me till I came to the place and there befel what befel of the bringing out of the money.” I admired this with the utmost admiration and knew that he was of the sons of the pious. So I bestirred myself for his release and cured him and besought him of acquittance and absolution of responsibility. All those who were present marvelled at this story with the utmost marvel, and the twelfth constable came forward and said, “I will tell you a pleasant trait that I heard from a certain person, concerning an adventure which befel him with one of the thieves.” THE TWELFTH CONSTABLE’S HISTORY. (Quoth he) I was passing one day in the market, when I found that a robber had broken into the shop of a shroff, a changer of monies, and thence taken a casket, wherewith he had made off to the burial-ground. Accordingly I followed him thither and came up to him, as he opened the casket and fell a-looking into it; whereupon I accosted him, saying, “Peace be on you!”[112] And he was startled at me; so I left him and went away from him. Some months after this, I met him again under arrest, in the midst of the guards and “men of violence,”[113] and he said to them, “Seize this man.” So they laid hands on me and carried me to the Chief of Police, who said, “What hast thou to do with this wight?” The robber turned to me and looking a long while in my face, asked, “Who took this man?” and the officer answered, “Thou badest us take him; so we took him.” And he cried, “I ask refuge of Allah! I know not this man, nor knoweth he me; and I said not that to you but of a person other than this.” So they released me, and a while after the thief met me in the street and saluted me with the salam, saying, “O my lord, fright for fright! Hadst thou taken aught from me, thou hadst a part in the calamity.”[114] I replied to him, “Allah be the judge between me and thee!”[115] And this is what I have to recount. Then came forward the thirteenth constable and said, “I will tell you a tale which a man of my friends told me.” THE THIRTEENTH CONSTABLE’S HISTORY.