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the merchants came to him and said, ‘O Ali, hast thou spoken to him?’ ‘O folk,’ answered he, ‘I am ashamed to speak to him, though he owes me a thousand dinars. Ye consulted me not, when ye lent him your money; so ye have no claim on me. Dun him yourselves, and if he pay you not, complain of him to the king of the city, saying, “He is an impostor, who hath imposed upon us.” And he will quit you of him.’
So they repaired to the king and told him what had passed, saying, ‘O king of the age, we are perplexed concerning this merchant, whose generosity is excessive; for he doth thus and thus, and all he borrows, he gives away to the poor by handsful. Were he a man of nought, his heart would not suffer him to lavish gold thus; and were he a man of wealth, his good faith had been made manifest to us by the coming of his baggage; but we see none of his baggage, albeit he avoucheth that he hath a baggage-train and hath foregone it; and whenever we name this or that kind of stuff to him, he answereth, “I have great plenty of it.” Now some time hath past, but there appeareth no sign of his baggage-train, and he oweth us threescore thousand dinars, all of which he hath given away in alms.’ And they went on to praise him and extol his generosity.
Now this king was a very covetous man, more covetous than Ashab;[1] and when he heard tell of Marouf’s generosity and openhandedness, covetise got the better of him and he said to his vizier, ‘Were not this merchant a man of immense wealth, he had not shown all this munificence. His baggage-train will assuredly come, whereupon these merchants will flock to him and he will lavish unto them wealth galore. Now I have more right to this than they; wherefore I have a mind to make friends with him and
- ↑ Proverbial saying. Ashab was an Arab of the Time of Ignorance, whose covetousness became a byword.
