Page:Tales from the Gulistan (1928).pdf/227

Story CXLIX

in Diarbekr, the guest of an old man, who possessed abundant wealth and a beautiful son. One night he narrated to me that he had all his life no other son but this boy, telling me that in the locality people resorted to a certain tree in the valley to offer petitions, and that he had during many nights prayed at the foot of the said tree, till the Almighty granted him this son.

I overheard the boy whispering to his companion: "How good it would be if I knew where that tree is, that I might pray for my father to die."

Moral: The gentleman is delighted that his son is intelligent, and the boy complains that his father is a dotard.

Years elapse without thy visiting the tomb of thy father. What good hast thou done to him to expect the same from thy son?