Khalifah, the folk all know thee for a poor fisherman, and now
thou hast gotten an hundred golden dinars. Needs must the
Commander of the Faithful, Harun al-Rashid, hear of this from
some one, and haply he will be wanting money and will send for
thee and say to thee, 'I need a sum of money and it hath reached
me that thou hast an hundred dinars: so do thou lend them to me
those same.' I shall answer, 'O Commander of the Faithful, I am
a poor man, and whoso told thee that I had an hundred dinars lied
against me; for I have naught of this.' Thereupon he will commit
me to the Chief of Police, saying, "Strip him of his clothes and
torment him with the bastinado till he confess and give up the
hundred dinars in his possession. Wherefore, meseemeth to
provide against this predicament, the best thing I can do, is to
rise forthright and bash myself with the whip, so to use myself
to beating." And his Hashish [FN#209] said to him, "Rise, doff
thy dress." So he stood up and putting off his clothes, took a
whip he had by him and set handy a leathern pillow; then he fell
to lashing himself, laying every other blow upon the pillow and
roaring out the while, "Alas! Alas! By Allah, 'tis a false
saying, O my lord, and they have lied against me; for I am a poor
fisherman and have naught of the goods of the world!" The noise
of the whip falling on the pillow and on his person resounded in
the still of night and the folk heard it, and amongst others the
merchants, and they said, "Whatever can ail the poor fellow, that
he crieth and we hear the noise of blows falling on him?"
'Twould seem robbers have broken in upon him and are tormenting
him." Presently they all came forth of their lodgings, at the
noise of the blows and the crying, and repaired to Khalifah's
room, but they found the door locked and said one to other,
"Belike the robbers have come in upon him from the back of the