A man once gave his wife a dirham to buy rice; so she took it and
went to the rice-seller, who gave her the rice and began to jest
with her and ogle her, for she was dowered with beauty and
loveliness, saying, "Rice is not good but with sugar which if
thou wilt have, come in with me for an hour." So, saying, "Give
me sugar," she went in with him into his shop and he won his will
of her and said to his slave, "Weigh her out a dirham's worth of
sugar." But he made the slave a privy sign, and the boy, taking
the napkin, in which was the rice, emptied it out and put in
earth and dust in its stead, and for the sugar set stones, after
which he again knotted up the napkin and left it by her. His
object, in doing this, was that she should come to him a second
time; so, when she went forth of the shop, he gave her the napkin
and she took it, thinking to have in it rice and sugar, and
ganged her gait; but when she returned home and, setting it
before her husband, went for a cooking-pot, he found in it earth
and stones. So, as soon as she came back bringing the pot, he
said to her, "Did I tell thee I had aught to build, that thou
bringest me earth and stones?" When she saw this; she knew that
the rice-seller's slave had tricked her; so she said to her
husband, "O man, in my trouble of mind for what hath befallen me,
I went to fetch the sieve and brought the cooking-pot." "What
hath troubled thee?" asked he; and she answered, "O husband, I
dropped the dirham thou gavest me in the market-street and was
ashamed to search for it before the folk; yet I grudged to lose
the silver, so I gathered up the earth from the place where it
fell and brought it away, thinking to sift it at home. Wherefore
I went to fetch the sieve, but brought the cooking-pot instead."
Then she fetched the sieve and gave it to her husband, saying,
"Do thou sift it; for thine eyes are sharper than mine."
Accordingly he sat, sifting the clay, till his face and beard
were covered with dust; and he discovered not her trick, neither
knew what had befallen her. "This then, O King," said the Wazir,
"is an instance of the malice of women, and consider the saying
of Allah Almighty, "Surely the cunning of you (women) is
great!'
[FN#176] And again, 'Indeed, the malice of Satan is weak
in comparison with the malice of women.'"
[FN#177] The King gave
ear to his Wazir's speech and was persuaded thereby and was
satisfied by what he cited to him of the signs of Allah
[FN#178];
and the lights of good counsel arose and shone in the firmament
of his understanding and he turned from his purpose of slaying
his son. But on the fourth day, the favourite came in to him
weeping and wailing and, kissing the ground before him, said, "O
auspicious King, and lord of good rede, I have made plainly
manifest to thee my grievance and thou hast dealt unjustly by me
and hast forborne to avenge me on him who hath wronged me,
because he is thy son and the darling of thy heart; but Allah
(extolled and exalted be He!) will presently succour me against
him, even as He succoured the King's son against his father's
Wazir." "And how was that?" asked the King; and she answered, "I
have heard tell, O King, a tale of
The Enchanted String.
