Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 7.djvu/302

274 Jew said, ‘Meseemeth thou wouldst have me become a Muslim.’ ‘By Allah, O Jew,’ replied Khelifeh, ‘if thou become a Muslim, it will neither advantage the Muslims nor hurt the Jews; and in like manner, if thou hold to thy heresy, it will neither damage the Muslims nor profit the Jews. But what I desire of thee is that thou rise to thy feet and say, “Bear witness against me, O people of the market, that I barter my ape for that of Khelifeh the fisherman and my lot in the world for his lot and my luck for his luck.”’ ‘If that be all thou desirest,’ said the Jew, ‘it is lightly done.’ So he rose forthright and standing on his feet, repeated the required words; after which he turned to the fisherman and said to him, ‘Hast thou aught else to ask of me?’ ‘No,’ answered he, and the Jew said, ‘Go in peace.’

So Khelifeh took up his net and basket and returned straight to the Tigris, where he threw his net and pulled it in. He found it heavy and brought it not ashore but with difficulty, when he found it full of fish of all kinds. Presently, up came a woman with a dish, who gave him a dinar, and he gave her fish for it; and after her an eunuch, who also bought a dinar’s worth of fish, and another and another, till he had sold ten dinars’ worth. And he continued to sell ten dinars’ worth of fish daily for ten days, till he had gotten a hundred dinars.

Now he dwelt in the Passage of the Merchants, and as he lay one night in his lodging, [drunken with hashish,] he said to himself, ‘O Khelifeh, the folk all know thee for a poor fisherman, and now thou hast gotten a hundred dinars. The Commander of the Faithful will assuredly hear of this from some one, and mayhap he will be in need of money and will send for thee and say to thee, “I have occasion for a sum of money and I have been told that thou hast a hundred dinars: so do thou lend them to me.” “O Commander of the Faithful,” shall I answer, “I