Victual to One Whom He Knew Not
p. Story of the Idiot and the Sharper
q. Story of Khelbes and His Wife and the Learned Man






Breslau Text.



ASLEEP AND AWAKE[FN#1]





There was once [at Baghdad], in the Khalifate of Haroun er
Reshid, a man, a merchant, who had a son by name Aboulhusn el
Khelia.[FN#2] The merchant died and left his son great store of
wealth, which he divided into two parts, one of which he laid up
and spent of the other half; and he fell to companying with
Persians[FN#3] and with the sons of the merchants and gave
himself up to good eating and good drinking, till all that he had
with him of wealth[FN#4] was wasted and gone; whereupon he betook
himself to his friends and comrades and boon-companions and
expounded to them his case, discovering to them the failure of
that which was in his hand of wealth; but not one of them took