Page:Tales from the Arabic, Vol 2.djvu/68

48 consorted with him and mixed with him and he with us and we know the sincerity of his religion.’ Then quoth one of them to the merchant, ‘Harkye, such an one! Bethink thee and consult thy memory. It may not be but that thou hast forgotten.’ But he said, ‘O folk, I know nothing of that which he saith, for indeed he deposited nought with me.’ And the affair was prolonged between them. Then said the sharper to the merchant, ‘I am about to make a journey and have, praised be God the Most High, wealth galore, and this money shall not escape me; but do thou swear to me.’ And the folk said, ‘Indeed, this man doth justice upon himself.’ Whereupon the merchant fell into that which he misliked and came near upon [suffering] loss and ill repute.

Now he had a friend, who pretended to quickwittedness and understanding; so he came up to him privily and said to him, ‘Let me do, so I may put the change on this trickster, for I know him to be a liar and thou art near upon having to pay the money; but I will turn suspicion from thee and say to him, “The deposit is with me and thou erredst in imagining that it was with other than myself,” and so divert him from thee.’ ‘Do so,’ replied the merchant, ‘and rid the folk of their [false] debts.’

So the friend turned to the sharper and said to him,