"I once hanged ten thieves each on his own gibbet, and especially
charged the guards to watch them and hinder the folk from taking
any one of them down. Next morning when I came to look at them, I
found two bodies hanging from one gallows and said to the guards,
'Who did this, and where is the tenth gibbet?' But they denied
all knowledge of it, and I was about to beat them till they owned
the truth, when they said, 'Know, O Emir, that we fell asleep
last night, and when we awoke, we found that some one had stolen
one of the bodies, gibbet and all; so we were alarmed and feared
thy wrath. But, behold, up came a peasant-fellow driving his ass;
whereupon we laid hands on him and killed him and hanged his body
upon this gallows, in the stead of the thief who had been
stolen.'
FN#404 Now when I heard this, I marvelled and asked
them, 'What had he with him?'; and they answered, 'He had a pair
of saddle-bags on the ass.' Quoth I, 'What was in them?'; quoth
they, 'We know not.' So I said, 'Bring them hither;' and when
they brought them to me I bade open them, behold, therein was the
body of a murdered man, cut in pieces. Now as soon as I saw this,
I marvelled at the case and said in myself, 'Glory to God! The
cause of the hanging of this peasant was none other but his crime
against this murdered man; and thy Lord is not unjust towards His
servants.'"
FN#405 And men also tell the tale of
THE THIEF AND THE SHROFF.
