a spy to inform his comrades on the proper occasion? Accordingly to my opinion we ought to depart and to let him sleep."
The youths approved of the old man's advice and became suspicious of the athlete, took up their baggage and departed, leaving him asleep. He knew this when the sun shone upon his shoulders, and perceived that the caravan had started. he roamed about a great deal without finding the way; and thirsty, as well as dismayed as he was, he sat down on the ground, with his heart ready to perish, saying: "Who will speak to me after the yellow camels have departed? A stranger has no companion except a stranger. He uses harshness towards strangers who has not himself been exiled enough."
The poor man was speaking thus whilst the son of a King who happened to be in a hunting-party, strayed far from the troops, was standing over this head, listening. He looked at the figure of the athlete, saw that his outward appearance was respectable, but his outward condition miserable. He then asked him whence he had come, and how he had fallen into this place. The athlete briefly informed him of what had taken place, whereon the royal Prince, moved by pity, presented him with a robe of honour and a large sum of money, and sent a confidential man to accompany him till he again reached his native town. His father was glad to see him, and expressed gratitude at his safety; in the evening he narrated to his father what had befallen him with the boat, mentioned the violence of the boatman, the harshness of the rustic near the well, and the treachery of the caravan people on the road.
The father replied: "My son! Have not I told thee at thy departure that the brave hands of empty-handed persons are [like] the broken paws of a lion? How well has that empty-handed fighter said: 'A grain of gold is better than fifty mann of strength.'"
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