A mouse and an ichneumon once dwelt in the house of a peasant who was
very poor; and when one of his friends sickened, the doctor prescribed
him husked sesame. So the hind sought of one of his comrades sesame to
be husked by way of healing the sick man; and, when a measure thereof
was given to him, he carried it home to his wife and bade her dress it.
So she steeped it and husked it and spread it out to dry. Now when
the ichneumon saw the grain, she went up to it and fell to carrying it
away to her hole, and she toiled all day, till she had borne off the
most of it. Presently, in came the peasant's wife and, seeing much of
the grain gone, stood awhile wondering; after which she sat down to
watch and find out who might be the intruder and make him account for
her loss. After a while, out crept the ichneumon to carry off the
grain as was her wont, but spying the woman seated there, knew that she
was on the watch for her and said in her mind, "Verily, this affair is
like to end blameably; and sore I fear me this woman is on the look-out
for me, and Fortune is no friend to who attend not to issue and end: so
there is no help for it but that I do a fair deed, whereby I may
manifest my innocence and wash out all the ill-doings I have done." So
saying, she began to take the sesame out of her hole and carry it forth
and lay it back upon the rest. The woman stood by and, seeing the
ichneumon do thus, said to herself, "Verily this is not the cause of
our loss, for she bringeth it back from the hole of him who stole it
and returneth it to its place; and of a truth she hath done us a
kindness in restoring us the sesame, and the reward of those who do us
good is that we do them the like good. It is clear that it is not she
who stole the grain; but I will not cease my watching till he fall into
my hands and I find out who is the thief." The ichneumon guess what
was in her mind, so she went to the mouse and said to her, "O my
sister, there is no good in one who observeth not the claims of
neighborship and who showeth no constancy in friendship." The mouse
replied, "Even so, O my friend, and I delight in thee and in they
neighborhood; but what be the motive of this speech?" Quoth the
ichneumon, "The house- master hath brought home sesame and hath eaten
his fill of it, he and his family, and hath left much; every living
being hath eaten of it and, if thou take of it in they turn, thou art
worthier thereof than any other." This pleased the mouse and she
squeaked for joy and danced and frisked her ears and tail, and greed
for the grain deluded her; so she rose at once and issuing forth of her
home, saw the sesame husked and dry, shining with whiteness, and the
woman sitting at watch and ward. The mouse, taking no thought to the
issue of the affair (for the woman had armed herself with a cudgel),
and unable to contain herself, ran up to the sesame and began turning
it over and eating of it; whereupon the woman smote her with that club
and cleft her head: so the cause of her destruction were her greed and
heedlessness of consequences. Then said the Sultan, "O Shahrazad, by
Allah! this be a goodly parable! Say me, hast thou any story bearing
on the beauty of true friendship and the observance of its duty in time
of distress and rescuing from destruction?" Answered she:—Yes, it hath
reached me that they tell a tale of