"Am I?" returned the puzzled Abul, and, rising, he heard strains of
music, and knew that the band was playing, as it always does on the
awaking of a King in the morning.
He washed and dressed and went with his Vizier to hold court. While
there, he said to his courtiers: "There is a man living in a certain
house, and his name is Abul, I want you to take to his mother a bag
of a thousand rupees. Also go to the Musjid; catch the old Priest,
give him one hundred stripes, put him and his four friends on donkeys,
and drive them out of the city."
All day Abul reigned as King, but when night came, the servants,
who had been instructed what to do by the real King, once more put
sleeping powder into his wine, and while he slept removed him to his
own home, and put him into his own bed again.
When he awoke there in the morning he called to his servants, but no
one answered, except his old mother, who came and stood beside him.
"Why do you call your servants?" she asked.
"Because I am a King," he replied. "Who are you?"
"I am your mother, my son, and think you must be dreaming. If the
King hears about this he will be so angry that perhaps he will have
you killed. You are only the son of a poor man; and do not vex the
King, for he has been very good, and sent us a present of a thousand
rupees yesterday."
Abul, however, would not listen, but kept on insisting that he was
King, so at last the King had him locked up in prison, declaring that
he must be mad. There he was kept until he ceased to say that he was
King, and then he was released.
On his return home, he once more invited some strange men, and, as
before, the King was amongst them, and again surreptitiously put the
sleeping powder into Abul's wine, and caused him to be removed and
put into his Palace on his bed while he was unconscious.
Next morning on waking Abul felt sure that it must be a dream this
time, and he kept rubbing his eyes and asking the servants who he
was. The servants replied: "Why, you are our King."
Abul was more than puzzled, and, pointing to his arms, which still
bore the marks of bruises from stripes received in prison, said:
"If I am really the King, why have I these bruises? I have been put
in prison, and these are the marks where I was beaten."
But the servant said: "Your Majesty is dreaming; you are a King,
and a very great King."
On this Abul got up, and hearing the strains of music, he was so
delighted at his lucky position that he began to dance about the room,
while the King, who was peeping from a doorway, stood and laughed
so much that he was almost choked. At last, being unable to restrain
himself longer, he called out: "O Abul, do you wish to kill me with
laughter?"
On this Abul discovered that the King had been playing a practical
joke on him, and he said: "O King, you have given me much misery."
"Have I?" said the King. "Well, as much misery as I have given you,
so much pleasure shall you now have;" and he gave him a present
of heaps of money and a beautiful wife, sending him away with the
assurance that he would never be poor any more.
Very soon Abul ran through all his money, and, hoping to get some
more from the King, planned with his wife to pay another visit to
the Palace.
Then he went to the King and, crying and wringing his hands, said:
"O King, my wife is dead."
The King, much shocked and grieved, gave him a than [5] of cloth and
a thousand rupees, and told him to go and bury his wife.
In the meantime his wife had gone to the Queen's apartments, and
there, throwing herself on her face, she wept and said: "O Queen,
my husband is dead, and I am most unhappy!"
The Queen, deeply grieved, gave her a thousand rupees and a than of
cloth, saying: "Go, bury thy dead."
Abul and his wife were now most happy, and set to work to make
themselves clothes with the new cloth they had received.
Now it happened that day that the King went to see his Queen, and,
finding her in tears, enquired the cause of her grief.
"Abul's wife has just been to say Abul is dead."
"No," said the King; "you mean that Abul has just been to say that
his wife is dead."
"No," replied the Queen, "Abul is dead."
"Not at all," returned the King; "Abul's wife is dead," and they fell
out and quarrelled about it.
Then the King said: "Well, we'll make a contract: if I am wrong,
then I'll give you a present of a garden."
And the Queen said: "Very well; and if I am mistaken, I will give
you my picture gallery."
On this the King and Queen together went with a number of followers
to the house of Abul.
When Abul and his wife saw them coming they were so frightened that
they did not know what to do, and, having no time to run away, they
both got under the cloth they were sewing, and lay quite still as
though they were dead.
The King and Queen coming up were surprised indeed to find that both
were really dead; but the King, remembering his promise to his wife,
said: "Now, if we only could find out who died first."
On this Abul crept out quietly, fell at the King's feet, and cried:
"Your Majesty, I died first."
At the same time his wife crawled out and prostrated herself at the
Queen's feet, saying: "Your Majesty, I died first."
All the followers began to laugh, and so did the King, who asked Abul
why he had done this thing. Abul then confessed how he had squandered
all the money which the King had given, and, not knowing how to get
any more, had determined to do what he had done.
The King, pleased at Abul's cleverness, gave him houses and money,
so that he never again suffered any want.