Now the folk used to go in to her and salute her and crave her
prayers; and it was her wont to pray for none till he had
confessed to her his sins, when she would seek pardon for him and
pray for him that he might be healed, and he was straightway made
whole of sickness, by permission of God the Most High. [So, when
the four sick men were brought in to her,] she knew them
forthright, though they knew her not, and said to them, ' Let
each of you confess his sins, so I may crave pardon for him and
pray for him.' And the brother said, 'As for me, I required my
brother's wife of herself and she refused; whereupon despite and
folly[FN#7] prompted me and I lied against her and accused her to
the townsfolk of adultery; so they stoned her and slew her
unjustly and unrighteously; and this is the issue of unright and
falsehood and of the slaying of the [innocent] soul, whose
slaughter God hath forbidden.'

Then said the young man, the villager's son, 'And I, O holy
woman, my father brought us a woman who had been stoned, and my
people tended her till she recovered. Now she was surpassing of
beauty; so I required her of herself; but she refused and clave
fast to God (to whom belong might and majesty), wherefore
folly[FN#8] prompted me, so that I agreed with one of the youths
that he should steal clothes and coin from my father's house.
Then I laid hands on him [and carried him] to my father and made
him confess. So he avouched that the woman was his mistress from
the city and had been stoned on his account and that she was of
accord with him concerning the theft and had opened the doors to
him, and this was a lie against her, for that she had not yielded
to me in that which I sought of her. So there befell me what ye
see of punishment." And the young man, the thief, said, 'I am he