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The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 11 [Supplement] by Anonymous
page 62 of 399 (15%)
we dive upon thy luck this next time and whatso betideth us shall
be between us and thee."[FN#154] Accordingly, they ducked and
brought up ten oyster-shells, in each two great unions: whereat
they marvelled and said to him,"By Allah, thy luck hath
re-appeared and thy good star is in the ascendant!" Then the
pearl-fishers gave him the ten pearls and said to him, "Sell two
of them and make them thy stock-in-trade: and hide the rest
against the time of thy straitness." So he took them, joyful and
contented, and applied himself to sewing eight of them in his
gown, keeping the two others in his mouth; but a thief saw him
and went and advertised his fellows of him; whereupon they
gathered together upon him, and took his gown and departed from
him. When they were gone away, he arose, saying, "The two unions
I have will suffice me," and made for the nearest city, where he
brought out the pearls for sale. Now as Destiny would have it, a
certain jeweller of the town had been robbed of ten unions, like
those which were with the merchant; so, when he saw the two
pearls in the broker's hand, he asked him, "To whom do these
belong?" and the broker answered, "To yonder man." The jeweller,
seeing the merchant in pauper case and clad in tattered clothes,
suspected him and said to him, "Where be the other eight pearls?"
The merchant thought he asked him of those which were in the
gown, whenas the man had purposed only to surprise him into
confession, and replied, "The thieves stole them from me." When
the jeweller heard his reply, he was certified that it was the
wight who had taken his good; so he laid hold of him and haling
him before the Chief of Police, said to him, "This is the man who
stole my unions: I have found two of them upon him and he
confesseth to the other eight." Now the Wali knew of the theft of
the pearls; so he bade throw the merchant into jail. Accordingly
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