Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/274

246 where he found the ass-man breaking the vats and jars and saw that there was neither stuff nor liquor left in them and that the shop was in ruins. So he said to him, ‘Hold thy hand, O ass-driver!’ Whereupon the latter desisted and said, ‘Praised be God for thy safety, O Hajj! Indeed, my heart was with thee.’ ‘Why so?’ asked the dyer. ‘Thou art become bankrupt and they have filed a docket of thine insolvency.’ ‘Who told thee this?’ asked the dyer. ‘Thy mother told me,’ answered the other, ‘and bade me break the jars and empty the vats, that the apparitors might find nothing in the shop, if they should come.’ ‘God confound thee!’ cried the dyer. ‘My mother died long ago.’ And he beat his breast, saying, ‘Alas for the loss of my goods and those of the folk!’ The ass-man also wept and said, ‘Alas, for the loss of my ass!’ And he said to the dyer, ‘Give me back my ass, that thy mother stole from me.’ The dyer laid hold of him by the throat and fell to pummelling him, saying, ‘Bring me the old woman;’ whilst the other pummelled him back, saying, ‘Give me back my ass.’ So they beat and cursed each other, till the folk collected round them and one of them said, ‘What is the matter, O Hajj Mohammed?’ Quoth the ass-driver, ‘I will tell thee the case,’ and related to them his story, saying, ‘I thought I was doing the dyer a good turn; but, when he saw me, he said, “My mother is dead,” and beat his breast. And now I require my ass of him, for that it is he who hath put this trick on me, that he might make me lose my beast.’

Then said the folk to the dyer, ‘O Hajj Mohammed, dost thou know this old woman, that thou didst trust her with the dyery and what was therein?’ And he answered, saying, ‘I know her not; but she took lodgings with me to-day, she and her son and daughter.’ Quoth one, ‘In my judgment, the dyer is bound to indemnify the ass-driver.’ ‘Why so?’ asked another. ‘Because,’ [sic] replied