A man once gave his wife a dirham to buy rice; so she took it and went
to the rice-seller, who gave her the rice and began to jest with her
and ogle her, for she was dowered with beauty and loveliness, saying,
“Rice is not good but with sugar which if thou wilt have, come in with
me for an hour.” So, saying, “Give me sugar,” she went in with him into
his shop and he won his will of her and said to his slave, “Weigh her
out a dirham’s worth of sugar.” But he made the slave a privy sign, and
the boy, taking the napkin, in which was the rice, emptied it out and
put in earth and dust in its stead, and for the sugar set stones, after
which he again knotted up the napkin and left it by her. His object, in
doing this, was that she should come to him a second time; so, when she
went forth of the shop, he gave her the napkin and she took it,
thinking to have in it rice and sugar, and ganged her gait; but when
she returned home and, setting it before her husband, went for a
cooking-pot, he found in it earth and stones. So, as soon as she came
back bringing the pot, he said to her, “Did I tell thee I had aught to
build, that thou bringest me earth and stones?” When she saw this; she
knew that the rice-seller’s slave had tricked her; so she said to her
husband, “O man, in my trouble of mind for what hath befallen me, I
went to fetch the sieve and brought the cooking-pot.” “What hath
troubled thee?” asked he; and she answered, “O husband, I dropped the
dirham thou gavest me in the market-street and was ashamed to search
for it before the folk; yet I grudged to lose the silver, so I gathered
up the earth from the place where it fell and brought it away, thinking
to sift it at home. Wherefore I went to fetch the sieve, but brought
the cooking-pot instead.” Then she fetched the sieve and gave it to her
husband, saying, “Do thou sift it; for thine eyes are sharper than
mine.” Accordingly he sat, sifting the clay, till his face and beard
were covered with dust; and he discovered not her trick, neither knew
what had befallen her. “This then, O King,” said the Wazir, “is an
instance of the malice of women, and consider the saying of Allah
Almighty,—Surely the cunning of you (women) is great![FN#176] And
again, ‘Indeed, the malice of Satan is weak in comparison with the
malice of women.’”[FN#177] The King gave ear to his Wazir’s speech and
was persuaded thereby and was satisfied by what he cited to him of the
signs of Allah[FN#178]; and the lights of good counsel arose and shone
in the firmament of his understanding and he turned from his purpose of
slaying his son. But on the fourth day, the favourite came in to him
weeping and wailing and, kissing the ground before him, said, “O
auspicious King, and lord of good rede, I have made plainly manifest to
thee my grievance and thou hast dealt unjustly by me and hast forborne
to avenge me on him who hath wronged me, because he is thy son and the
darling of thy heart; but Allah (extolled and exalted be He!) will
presently succour me against him, even as He succoured the King’s son
against his father’s Wazir.” “And how was that?” asked the King; and
she answered, “I have heard tell, O King, a tale of