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So he returned to his mother (and indeed his spirit was broken), and related to her that which had happened to him and what had betided him from his friends, how they had neither shared with him nor requited him with speech. “O Aboulhusn,” answered she, “on this wise are the sons[1] of this time: if thou have aught, they make much of thee,[2] and if thou have nought, they put thee away [from them].” And she went on to condole with him, what while he bewailed himself and his tears flowed and he repeated the following verses:
An if my substance fail, no one there is will succour me,
But if my wealth abound, of all I’m held in amity.
How many a friend, for money’s sake, hath companied with me!
How many an one, with loss of wealth, hath turned mine enemy!
Then he sprang up [and going] to the place wherein was the other half of his good, [took it] and lived with it well; and he swore that he would never again consort with those whom he knew, but would company only with the stranger nor entertain him but one night and that, whenas it morrowed, he would never know him more. So he fell to sitting every night on the bridge[3] and looking on every one who passed by him; and if he saw him to be a stranger, he made friends with him and carried him to his house, where he caroused with him till the morning. Then he dismissed him and would never more salute him nor ever again drew near unto him neither invited him.
