XIII

I have heard of a king who had turned night into day in the midst of
conviviality, and in the gayety of intoxication was exclaiming--"I never
was in this life happier than at this present moment, for I have no
thought of evil or good, and care for nobody!"--A naked dervish, who had
taken up his rest in the cold outside, answered--"O thou, who in good
fortune hast not thy equal in the world, I admit that thou hast no cause
of care for thyself, but hast thou none for us?"--The king was pleased
at this speech. He put a purse of a thousand dinars out at the window,
and said: "O dervish! hold up your skirt." He replied, "Where can I find
a skirt, who have not a garment." The king was still more touched at the
hardship of his condition, and adding an honorary dress to that
donation, sent them out to him.

The dervish squandered all that ready cash within a few days, and
falling again into distress, returned.--"Money makes no stay in the hand
of a religious independent; neither does patience in a lover's heart,
nor water in a sieve."--At a time when the king had no thought about
him, they obtruded his case, and he took offence and turned away his
face. And it is on such an occasion that men of prudence and experience
have remarked that it behooves us to guard against the wrath and fury of
kings, whose noble thoughts are chiefly occupied with important affairs
of state, and cannot endure the importunate clamors of the vulgar.--The
bounty of the sovereign is forbid to him who does not watch a proper
opportunity. Till thou canst perceive a convenient time for obtruding an
opinion, undermine not thy consequence by idle talk.--The king said,
"Let this impudent beggar and spendthrift be beaten and driven away, who
in a short time dissipated such a sum of money, for the treasury of the