(1.) Sinadab was left by his father’s will free to dispose of a large property, with the exception of a diminutive garden, at the end of which was a small house. This he was on no account to part with. He indulged in reckless profusion, and in about two years everything was spent. The friends of his affluent days abandoned him,--all but one, who gave him ten sequins. With only this in hand he set out on a voyage which led to adventures which may be passed over. They ended in his coming again to extreme poverty. He then remembered the little garden which he had been forbidden to sell. He found a small box in the house, and eagerly broke it open. There was nothing in it but a rope, with a writing in his father’s hand, rebuking him for his dissipation, and suggesting that, if he had sufficient resolution, he might put an end to his troubles by use of the rope. Sinadab accordingly got up on a stool, fastened the rope to the ceiling, adjusted a noose about his neck, and pushed back the stool. The ceiling gave way, and he was covered with a shower of gold pieces, which proved to be only a trifling part of riches concealed above. His career after this was serious and prudent. Gueulette, ‘Les mille et un quart d’heure,’ Contes Tartares, Cabinet des Fées, XXI, 66-70, 89-93. (2.) =Turkish.= A merchant took his son to a certain house, and said, If you waste the wealth I leave, do not beg, but get a rope and hang yourself from this ring. The son squandered his inheritance with sycophants, who reviled him after he was stripped. He got a rope, went to the house, mounted a stool, fastened one end of the rope to the ring, the other about his neck, and threw himself from the stool. A board in which the ring was fastened gave way, the young man fell to the ground, and gold and jewels came pouring upon him. He repented of his profligacy, and reformed his ways. ‘The Forty Vezirs,’ Gibb, p. 244; Behrnauer, p. 253. (3.) =Arabic.= A man charged his son not to beg if he should come to want, for he had hidden a treasure in his house, which, however, he was not to resort to until compelled by dire necessity. After his father’s death, the son, without delay, broke into the place where the treasure had been said to be concealed, but found only an empty room, with a rope hanging from the ceiling. Under the rope was a pile of bricks, and a paper recommending him to get up on the bricks and hang himself. The young man went off, and with the assistance of parasites, was soon rid of all his wealth. After a taste of the sharpness of poverty and of the baseness of summer friends, he went to the room where he had expected to find the treasure, stepped on the pile of bricks, tied the rope round his neck, and kicked away the bricks. The rope parted, and a quantity of precious things tumbled from overhead. His false friends promptly returned with prosperity, but were put to shame. Tausend und eine Nacht, Deutsch von Habicht, v. d. Hagen u. Schall, 1840, XIV, 65-68.