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Story CLXIII

wife of a Dervish had become enceinte, and when the time of her confinement was at hand the Dervish, who had no child during all his life, said: "If God the Most High and Glorious presents me with a son, I shall bestow everything I possess as alms upon Dervishes, except this patched garment of mine which I am wearing." It happened that the infant was a son. He rejoiced and gave a banquet to the Dervishes, as he had promised.

Some years afterwards, when I returned from a journey to Syria, I passed near the locality of the Dervish and asked about his circumstances, but was told that he had been put in prison by the police. Asking for the cause, I was told that his son, having become drunk, quarrelled, and, having shed the blood of a man, had fled; whereon his father was, instead of him, loaded with a chain on his neck, and heavy fetters on his legs.

I replied: "He had himself asked God the Most High and Glorious for this calamity. If pregnant women, O man of intellect, bring forth serpents at the time of birth, it is better in the opinion of the wise than to give birth to a wicked progeny."