Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/310

298 one thing and another; but to-morrow, without fail, come and take thy stuff dyed.’

When the man came again at the appointed time, he would put him off with some other tale, it mattered little what, and would swear to him; nor would he cease to promise and swear to him, as often as he came, till the customer lost patience and said, ‘How often wilt thou say to me, “To-morrow?”“To-morrow”? [sic] Give me my stuff: I will not have it dyed.’ Whereupon the dyer would make answer, ‘By Allah, O my brother, I am abashed at thee; but I will tell the truth and may God harm all who do folk hurt in their goods!’ The other would say, ‘Tell me what hath happened;’ and Aboukir would answer, ‘Indeed I dyed thy stuff on matchless wise and hung it on the rope [to dry;]dry]; [sic] but it was stolen and I know not who took it.’ If the owner of the stuff were a good-natured man, he would say, ‘God will recoup me;’ and if he were ill-conditioned, he would pursue him with exposure and insult, but would get nothing of him, though he complained of him to the judge.

He ceased not to do thus till his report was noised abroad among the folk and they used to warn one another against him and he became a byword amongst them. So they all held aloof from him and none had to do with him save those who knew not his character; but, for all this, he failed not daily to suffer insult and disgrace from God’s creatures. By reason of this his trade became slack and he used to go to the shop of his neighbour the barber and sit there, with his eyes on the door of the dyery. Whenever he espied any one who knew him not standing at the dyery-door, with a piece of stuff in his hand, he would go up to him and say, ‘What seekest thou, O man?’ And the man would answer, ‘Take and dye me this thing.’ So the dyer would say, ‘What colour wilt thou have it?’ For, with all his knavery, he could dye all manner of