Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/326

314 Then said the king, ‘O master, is this the bath?’ And Abousir answered, ‘Yes.’ ‘As my head liveth,’ quoth the king, ‘my city is not become a city indeed but by this bath! But what pay takest thou for each person?’ ‘That which thou biddest me will I take,’ replied Abousir; and the king said, ‘Take a thousand dinars for every one who washeth in thy bath.’ But Abousir said, ‘Pardon, O king of the age! All men are not alike, but there are amongst them rich and poor, and if I take of each a thousand dinars, the bath will stand empty, for the poor man cannot avail to this price.’ ‘How then wilt thou do for the price?’ asked the king. ‘I will leave it to the generosity [of the customers],’ answered the barber. ‘Each who can afford aught shall pay that which his soul grudgeth not to give, and we will take from every man, after the measure of his condition. So will the folk come to us and he who is rich shall give according to his station and he who is poor shall give what he can afford. On this wise the bath will still be at work and prosper; but a thousand dinars is a king’s gift, and not every man can avail thereto.’

The grandees of the kingdom confirmed Abousir’s words, saying, ‘This is the truth, O king of the age! Thinkest thou that all folk are like unto thee, O glorious king?’ ‘You say sooth,’ answered the king; ‘but this man is a stranger and poor and it behoveth us to deal generously with him, for that he hath made in our city this bath, whose like we have never in our lives seen and without which our city were not adorned nor had gotten importance; wherefore, if we guerdon him with increase of pay, it will not be much.’ But the grandees said, ‘If thou wilt guerdon him, let it be of thine own monies, and be the king’s bounty extended to the poor by means of the low price of the bath, so the folk may bless thee; but, as for the thousand dinars, we are the grandees of thine