Page:Tales from the Gulistan (1928).pdf/160

On the Excellence of Contentment

an Arab of the desert sitting in a company of jewelers at Bosrah and narrating stories to them. He said: "I have once lost my road in the desert, and consumed all my provisions. I considered that I must perish, when I suddenly caught sight of a bag full of pearls, and I shall never forget the joy and ecstasy I felt on thinking they might be parched grain, not the bitterness and despair when I discovered them to be pearls."

In a dry desert, and among moving said, it is the same to a thirsty man whether he has pearls or shells in his mouth. When a man has no provisions and his strength is exhausted, it matters not whether his girdle is adorned with pearls or potsherds.