Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/423

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"An ancient king of Tartary went abroad one day to take a walk with his beys. He met on the road an abdal, who cried out aloud, 'Whoever will give me a hundred dinaras, I will give him some good advice.' The king stopped to look on him, and said, 'Abdal, what is this good advice thou offerest for a hundred dinaras?' 'Sir, (answered the abdal), order that sum to be given me, and I will tell it you immediately.' The king did so; and expected to have heard something extraordinary for his money; when the dervise said to him, 'Sir, my advice is this: Never begin any thing till you have reflected what will be the end of it.'

"At these words all the beys, and other persons that attended the king, burst out into laughter. 'It must be confessed (said one of them), that this abdal knows some maxims that are very new.' 'He was not in the wrong (said another) to get paid beforehand.' The king, seeing that they all laughed at the dervise, said, 'You have no reason to laugh at the good advice this abdal has given me: though no man is ignorant, that, when we form any enterprise, we ought to meditate well upon it, and