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is this fish.’ Then he turned to Khelifeh and said to him, ‘Tell me, on thy faith, hath any seen it but I?’ ‘No, by Allah and by Abou Bekr the Truth-teller,’[1] answered Khelifeh, ‘none hath seen it but thou, O chief of the Jews!’ Whereupon the Jew turned to one of his servants and said to him, ‘Carry this fish to my house and bid Saadeh dress it and fry and broil it, against I make an end of my business and come home.’ And Khelifeh said, ‘Go, boy; let the master’s wife fry some of it and broil the rest.’ ‘I hear and obey, O my lord,’ answered the boy, and taking the fish, went away with it to the house.
Then the Jew put out his hand and gave the fisherman a dinar, saying, ‘Take this for thyself, O Khelifeh, and spend it on thy family.’ When Khelifeh saw the dinar in his hand, he took it, saying, ‘Glory to the Lord of Dominion!’ as if he had never seen aught of gold in his life, and went away; but before he had gone far, he bethought him of the ape’s injunction and turning back, threw the dinar to the Jew, saying, ‘Take thy gold and give folk back their fish. Are folk a laughing-stock to thee?’ The Jew thought he was jesting and offered him other two dinars, but he said, ‘Without a joke, give me the fish. How knewst thou I would sell it at this price?’ Whereupon the Jew gave him two more dinars and said, ‘Take these five dinars for thy fish and leave covetise.’ So Khelifeh took the five dinars and went away, rejoicing, looking and marvelling at the gold and saying, ‘Glory be to God! There is not with the Khalif of Baghdad what is with me this day!’
Then he went on till he came to the end of the market, when he remembered the ape’s words and returning to the Jew, threw him back the gold, Quoth he, ‘What ails thee, O Khelifeh? Dost thou want change for thy dinars
- ↑ The first Khalif, so called.
