Page:Fairy tales from the Arabian nights.djvu/335

 this gold?' Cassim, her husband, was at his shop, which he left always in the evening. His wife waited for him, and thought the time an age; so great was her impatience to tell him the news, at which he would be so much surprised.

When Cassim came home, his wife said to him, 'Cassim, you think yourself rich, but you are much mistaken; Ali Baba is infinitely richer than you; he does not count his money, but



measures it.' Cassim desired her to explain the riddle, which she did, telling him the stratagem by which she had made the discovery, and showing him the piece of money, which was so old a coin that they could not tell in what prince's reign it was coined.

Cassim, instead of being pleased at his brother's prosperity, could not sleep all that night for jealousy, but went to him in the morning before sunrise. Now Cassim, after he had married the rich widow, never treated Ali Baba as a brother, but forgot him, 'Ali Baba,' said he, 'you are very reserved in your affairs; you pretend to be miserably poor, and yet you measure gold!'