man, "What price did he pay thee?" Quoth the lad, "One diner."--
And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and ceased to say
her permitted say.

When it was the Five Hundred and Thirty-ninth Night,

Quoth Dunyazad, "O sister mine, an thou be other than sleepy, do
tell us some of thy pleasant tales," whereupon Shahrazad replied,
"With love and good will."--It hath reached me, O King of the
Age, that the ancient goldsmith, hearing from Alaeddin how the
Jew used to give only one diner as the price of the platter,
cried, "Ah! I take refuge from this Accursed who cozeneth the
servants of Allah Almighty!" Then, looking at the lad, he
exclaimed, "O my son, verily yon tricksy Jew hath cheated thee
and laughed at thee, this platter being pure silver and virginal.
I have weighed it and found it worth seventy diners; and, if thou
please to take its value, take it." Thereupon the Shaykh counted
out to him seventy gold pieces, which he accepted and presently
thanked him for his kindness in exposing the Jew's rascality. And
after this, whenever the price of a platter was expended, he
would bring another, and on such wise he and his mother were soon
in better circumstances; yet they ceased not to live after their
olden fashion as middle class folk[FN#122] without spending on
diet overmuch or squandering money. But Alaeddin had now thrown
off the ungraciousness of his boyhood; he shunned the society of
scapegraces and he began to frequent good men and true, repairing
daily to the market-street of the merchants and there companying
with the great and the small of them, asking about matters of
merchandise and learning the price of investments and so forth;
he likewise frequented the Bazars of the Goldsmiths and the