vizier.

"Speak your mind freely; I desire and command it," said the sultan.

"Then I am of opinion," answered the vizier, "that people are often led
to believe others fortunate, or unfortunate, merely because they only
know the general outline of their histories; and are ignorant of the
incidents and events in which they have shown prudence or imprudence. I
have heard, for instance, that there are at present, in this city, two
men, who are remarkable for their good and bad fortune: one is called
Murad the Unlucky, and the other Saladin the Lucky. Now, I am inclined
to think, if we could hear their stories, we should find that one is a
prudent and the other an imprudent character."

"Where do these men live?" interrupted the sultan. "I will hear their
histories from their own lips before I sleep."

"Murad the Unlucky lives in the next square," said the vizier.

The sultan desired to go thither immediately. Scarcely had they entered
the square, when they heard the cry of loud lamentations. They followed
the sound till they came to a house of which the door was open, and where
there was a man tearing his turban, and weeping bitterly. They asked the
cause of his distress, and he pointed to the fragments of a china vase,
which lay on the pavement at his door.

"This seems undoubtedly to be beautiful china," said the sultan, taking
up one of the broken pieces; "but can the loss of a china vase be the
cause of such violent grief and despair?"