Page:Tales from the Gulistan (1928).pdf/75

Story XXX

having issued orders to kill an innocent man, the latter said: "O King! Seek not thine own injury on account of the anger thou bearest towards me."

He asked: "How!"

The man replied: "This punishment will abide with me one moment, but the sin of it for ever with thee. The period of life has passed away like the desert wind, bitter and sweet; ugliness and beauty have passed away. The tyrant fancied he had done injury to us; it remained on his neck and passed away from us."

This admonition having taken effect, the King spared his blood.