Sidi El-Marouf and Sidi Abd-el-Tadu were travelling in company. Toward
evening they separated to find a resting-place. Sidi Abd-el-Tadu said to
his friend:
"Let us say a prayer, that God may preserve us from the evil which we have
never committed."
Sidi El-Marouf answered, "Yes, may God preserve us from the evil that we
have not done!"
They went toward the houses, each his own way. Sidi El-Marouf presented
himself at a door. "Can you entertain a traveller?"
"You are welcome," said a woman to him. "Enter, you may remain for the
night."
Night came. He took his supper. The woman spread a mat on the floor and he
went to sleep. The woman and her husband slept also. When all was quiet,
the woman got up, took a knife, and killed her husband. The next day at
dawn she began to cry:
"He has killed my husband!"
The whole village ran up to the house and seized the stranger. They bound
him, and everyone brought wood to burn the guilty man.
Sidi Abd-el-Tadu came also, and saw his friend in tears. "What have you
done?" he asked.
"I have done no evil," answered Sidi El-Marouf.
"Did I not tell you yesterday," said Sidi Abd-el-Tadu, "that we would say
the prayer that God should preserve us from the evil we had never
committed? And now you will be burned for a crime of which you are
innocent!"