She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the mouse
heard the words of the flea, she said, "If the case be as thou dost
relate and describe, then be at thine ease here; for naught shall befal
thee save the rain of peace and safety; nor shall aught betide thee but
what shall joy thee and shall not annoy thee, nor shall it annoy me. I
will lavish on thee my affections without stint; and do not thou regret
having lost the merchant's blood nor lament for thy subsistence from
him, but be content with what sustenance thou canst obtain; for indeed
that is the safer for thee. And I have heard, O flea, that one of the
gnomic poets saith as follows in these couplets,
I have fared content in my solitude *
With wate'er befel, and led life of ease,
On a water-draught and a bite of bread, *
Coarse salt and a gown of tattered frieze:
Allah might, an He pleased, give me easiest life, *
But with whatso pleaseth Him self I please.'"
Now when the flea heard these words of the mouse, he rejoined, "I
hearken to thy charge and I submit myself to obey thee, nor have I
power to gainsay thee, till life be fulfilled in this righteous
intention." Replied the mouse, "Pure intention sufficeth to sincere
affection." So the tie of love arose and was knitted between them
twain, and after this, the flea used to visit the merchant's bed by
night and not exceed in his diet, and house him by day in the hole of
the mouse. Now it came to pass one night, the merchant brought home
great store of dinars and began to turn them over. When the mouse
heard the chink of the coin, she put her head out of her hole and fell
to gazing at it, till the merchant laid it under his pillow and went to
sleep, when she said to the flea, "Seest thou not the proffered
occasion and the great good fortune? Hast thou any device to bring us
to our desire of yonder dinars? Quoth the flea, "Verily, it is not
good that one strives for aught, unless he be able to win his will;
because, if he lack ability thereto, he falleth into that which he
should avoid and he attaineth not his wish by reason of his weakness,
albeit he use all power of cunning, like the sparrow which picketh up
grain and falleth into the net and is caught by the fowler. Thou hast
no strength to take the dinars and to transport them out of this house,
nor have I force sufficient to do this; I the contrary, I could not
carry a single ducat of them; so what hast thou to do with them?"
Quoth the mouse, "I have made me for my house these seventy openings,
whence I may go out at my desire, and I have set apart a place strong
and safe, for things of price; and if thou can contrive to get the
merchant out of the house, I doubt not of success, an so be that Fate
aid me." Answered the flea, "I will engage to get him out of the house
for thee;" and, going to the merchant's bed, bit him a fearful bite,
such as he had never before felt, then fled to a place of safety, where
he had no fear of the man. So the merchant awoke and sought for the
flea, but finding him not, lay down again on his other side. Then the
flea bit him a second time more painfully than before. So he lost
patience and, leaving his bed, went out and lay down on the bench
before his door and slept there and woke not till the morning.
Meanwhile the mouse came out and fell to carrying the dinars into her
hole, till she left not a single one; and when day dawned the merchant
began to suspect the folk and fancy all manner of fancies. And
(continued the fox) know thou, O wise and experienced crow with the
clear-seeing eyes, that I tell thee this only to the intent that thou
mayst reap the recompense of thy kindness to me, even as the mouse
reaped the reward of her kindness to the flea; for see how he repaid
her and requited her with the goodliest of requitals. Said the crow,
"It lies with the benefactor to show benevolence or not to show it; nor
is it incumbent on us to entreat kindly one who seeketh a connection
that entaileth separation from kith and kin. If I show thee favour who
art my foe by kind, I am the cause of cutting myself off from the
world; and thou, O fox, art full of wiles and guiles. Now those whose
characteristics are craft and cunning, must not be trusted upon oath;
and whoso is not to be trusted upon oath, in him there is no good
faith. The tidings lately reached me of thy treacherous dealing with
one of thy comrades, which was a wolf; and how thou didst deceive him
until thou leddest him into destruction by thy perfidy and stratagems;
and this thou diddest after he was of thine own kind and thou hadst
long consorted with him: yet didst thou not spare him; and if thou
couldst deal thus with thy fellow which was of thine own kind, how can
I have trust in they truth and what would be thy dealing with thy foe
of other kind than thy kind? Nor can I compare thee and me but with the
saker and the birds." "How so?" asked the fox. Answered the crow,
they relate this tale of
The Saker[FN#169] and the Birds.
There was once a saker who was a cruel tyrant"—And Shahrazad perceived
the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.