Page:Tales from the Gulistan (1928).pdf/161

Story CVI

suffering in the desert from extreme thirst recited: "Would that before my death I could one day enjoy my wish that a river's waves might strike my knee and I might fill my water-bag."

In the same manner another traveler lost himself in an extensive region, having neither any strength nor food left; but he possessed some money, and roamed about, and, the road leaving him nowhere, he perished from exhaustion. Some people afterwards discovered his corpse, with the money in front of it, and the following written on the ground:

If possessed of all the Ja'feri gold It will avail nothing to a hungry man. To a poor man burnt in the desert Boiled turnips are more valuable than pure silver.