Page:Tales from the Gulistan (1928).pdf/61

Story XIX

is related that while some game was being roasted for Nushirvân the Just during a hunting party, no salt could be found. Accordingly a boy was sent to an adjoining village to bring some. Nushirvân said: "Pay for the salt, lest it should become a custom and the village be ruined." Having been asked what harm could arise from such a trifling demand, Nushirvân replied: "The foundation of oppression was small in the world; but whoever came augmented it, so that it reached its present magnitude. If the king eats one apple from the garden of a subject his slaves will pull him up the tree from the roots. For five eggs, which the Sultân allows to be taken by force, the people belonging to his army will put a thousand fowls on the spit!"


 * A tyrant does not remain in the world;
 * But the curse on him abides for ever!