Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 4.djvu/142

118 Their evidence satisfied the Cadi and he ordered me to pay the money; nor did I leave the Court till they had of me the three hundred dinars. So I went away, in the utmost wrath and confusion, vowing vengeance against them and repenting that I had not punished them.’

Then rose the chief of the Boulac police and said, ‘As for me, O our lord the Sultan, the most remarkable thing that befell me, during my term of office, was as follows: STORY OF THE CHIEF OF THE BOULAC POLICE.

I was once in debt to the amount of three hundred thousand dinars, and being distressed thereby, I sold what was behind me and what was before me and all I could lay my hands on, but could raise no more than a hundred thousand dinars and abode in great perplexity. One night, as I sat at home, in this state of mind, there came a knocking at the gate; so I said to one of my servants, “See who is at the door.” He went out and returned, pale and trembling in every nerve; so I said to him, “What ails thee?” “There is a man at the door, seeking thee,” answered he. “He is half naked, clad in skins, with a sword and a knife in his girdle, and with him are a company of the same fashion.” So I took my sword and going out to see who these were, found them as the boy had reported and said to them, “What is your business?” “We are thieves,” answered they, “and have made great purchase to-night and appointed it to thy use, that thou mayst pay therewith the debts that oppress thee and free thyself from thy distress.” “Where is it?” asked I; and they brought me a great chest, full of vessels of gold and silver; which when I saw, I rejoiced and said in myself, “It were ungenerous to let them go away empty-handed.”