Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 9.djvu/227

197 profess love for him, so that, when his baggage comes, I shall get of him what the merchants would have had; and I will give him my daughter to wife and join his wealth to mine.’ ‘O king of the age,’ answered the vizier, ‘methinks he is nought but an impostor, and it is the impostor who ruins the house of the covetous.’ ‘O vizier,’ rejoined the king, ‘I will prove him and know if he be an impostor or a man of good faith and whether he be a nursling of fortune or not.’ ‘And how wilt thou prove him?’ asked the vizier. Quoth the king, ‘I will send for him and make much of him and give him a jewel which I have. If he know it and know its price, he is a man of worth and fortune; but, if he know it not, he is an impostor and an upstart and I will slay him after the foulest fashion.’

So he sent for Marouf, who came and saluted him. The king returned his salutation and seating him beside himself, said to him, ‘Art thou the merchant Marouf?’ ‘Yes,’ answered he. Quoth the king, ‘The merchants pretend that thou owest them threescore thousand dinars. Is this true?’ And Marouf said ‘Yes.’ ‘Then why dost thou not give them their money?’ asked the king. ‘Let them wait till my baggage comes,’ replied Marouf, ‘and I will repay them two for one. If they wish for gold, they shall have gold; and if they wish for silver, they shall have silver; or if they prefer merchandise, I will give them merchandise. Moreover, him to whom I owe a thousand I will give two thousand in requital of that wherewith he hath veiled my face before the poor: for I have abundance.’

Then said the king, ‘O merchant, take this and look what is its kind and value.’ And he gave him a jewel the bigness of a hazel-nut, by which he set great store, for that he had bought it for a thousand dinars and had not another. Marouf took it and pressing it between his