Page:Tales from the Gulistan (1928).pdf/93

Story XLV

travellers were on a journey together, and equally sharing each other's troubles and comforts. I desired to accompany them, but they would not agree. Then I said: "It is foreign to the manners of great men to turn away the face from the company of the poor, and so deprive themselves of the advantage they might derive therefrom; because I for one consider myself sufficiently strong and energetic to be of service to men, and not an encumbrance. Although I am not riding on a beast, I shall aid you in carrying blankets.

One of them said: "Do not be grieved in the words thou hast heard, because some days ago a thief in the guise of a Dervish arrived and joined our company. How can people know who is in the dress? The writer is aware what the book contains. As the state of Dervishes is safe, we entertained no suspicion of him, and received him as a friend.


 * "THe outward state of Arifs is the patched dress;
 * It suffices as a display to the face of the people.
 * The abandoning of the world, of lust and desire
 * Is sanctity; not the abandonment of the robe only.

"We travelled one day till the night set in, during which we slept near a fort, and the graceless thief, taking up the water-pot of a companion, pretending to go for an ablution, departed for plunder.


 * A pretended Saint who wears the Dervish garb
 * Has made of the Ka'bah's robes the covering of an ass.