The robbers gave loud applause in approval of the argument and the king dismissed the washerman's case, ordering the ship taken by him to be restored to the merchant with its cargo and crew. The washerman was at once summoned and forced to obey the order.
The second charge, that brought by a woman, was then taken up by the merchant, and again instructed by the robber chief he spoke, "Mighty king, I admit that the woman who claimed to be provided for by me is actually my stepmother; and I am prepared to take her and her children with me to my own country, and there to pay them, as the dearest and nearest of my relations, the attentions they are worthy of. Graciously order their presence, that I may take them home."
"Hear, hear, hear," resounded from the lips of the robbers, and the woman was summoned before the court, and ordered with her children to follow her alleged stepson. She, however, hung down her head in confusion, and finally rejected the merchant's proposals. The king, too, looked confused and grieved at the prospect of losing his lion's share of the spoil made through her, but through fear of the robbers he was forced to restore to the merchant all that he had been robbed of in consequence of the woman's charge against him.
Having cleared himself so far, the merchant, with the king's permission, left the court, in company with his friends, the robbers. With the assistance of these he found the barber's house. The man was called out, and the robbers belaboured him so well that he fell down at their feet and cried for mercy. Thereupon the merchant said, "Well, cheat of a barber, you have robbed me on the ground that I did not give you enough. Now receive enough from me, and sign an acknowledgment to that effect." Saying this, he rubbed some nettles on the barber's body, and the stinging pain was so great that the swindler cried out, "Bus, bus."[1] Instantly paper, pen, and ink were produced, and the barber was only
- ↑ Enough, enough.
