Once upon a time there was a man and he wished to marry. So he went to
the Seers and asked them to foretell his future.
The Seers looked at their books and said to him, "If you marry you will
certainly have a child, a very beautiful boy, but with one blemish; he
will be a thief, the biggest thief that ever was."
So that man said, "Never mind, even if he be a thief; I should like to
have a son."
So he married, and in due time a child was born, a beautiful boy.
The child was carefully brought up till he was old enough to have a
teacher. Then the father engaged a professor to come and teach him every
day. He built a house a little distance from the town and put him in it,
and that professor came every morning and taught him during the day, and
in the evening returned home. Now the father ordered the professor never
to let his son see any other soul but himself, and he thought by that
means that his son would escape the fate that had been decreed by the
Seers; for if he never saw any other person he could have no one to
teach him to steal.
One day the professor came, and he told the lad about a horse of the
Sultan's, which used to go out to exercise by itself and return by
itself, and was of great strength and speed.
Then that youth asked where was the Sultan's palace, and his professor
took him up on to the flat roof and pointed out to him the palace and
its neighbourhood.
That night, after the professor left, the youth slipped out and came to
the Sultan's stables, stole the horse, and returned home with it.
[Illustration: The young thief]
Next day the professor was a little late in coming, so the lad asked
him, "Sheikh, why have you delayed to-day?" The professor said, "I
stayed to hear the news. Behold, some one has stolen the Sultan's horse
which I told you about yesterday."