A certain Cham of Tartary going a progress with his nobles, was met by
a Dervise, who cried with a loud voice, _whoever will give me a hundred
pieces of gold, I will give him a piece of advice_. The Cham ordered him
the sum: upon which the Dervise said, _begin nothing of which thou hast
not well considered the end_.
The courtiers upon hearing this plain sentence, smiled, and said with
a sneer, “The dervise is well paid for his maxim.” But the king was so
well satisfied with the answer, that he ordered it to be written in
golden letters in several places of his palace, and engraved on all his
plate. Not long after, the king’s surgeon was bribed to kill him with a
poisoned lancet at the time he let him blood. One day, when the king’s
arm was bound, and the fatal lancet in the surgeon’s hand, he read on
the bason, _begin nothing of which thou hast not well considered the
end_. He immediately started, and let the lancet fall out of his hand.
The king observed his confusion, and enquired the reason: the surgeon
fell prostrate, confessed the whole affair, and was pardoned, and the
conspirators died. The Cham, turning to his courtiers who heard the
advice with contempt, told them, “that counsel could not be too much
valued, which had saved a king’s life.”