Ch 03 On The Excellence Of Contentment Story 21

It is related that a sultan thus addressed a miserly beggar who had accumulated great riches: ‘It is evident that thou possessest boundless wealth and we have an affair on hand in which thou canst aid us by way of a loan. When the finances of the country are in a flourishing condition it will be repaid.’ The miser replied: ‘It is not befitting the power and dignity of a padshah to soil the hands of his noble aspirations with the property of an individual like myself who has collected it grain by grain.’ The king replied: ‘It does not matter because the money will be spent upon infidels: The wicked women should be joined to the wicked men.”

        If the water of a Christian’s well is impure  
        What matters it if thou washest a dead Jew therein?  
        They said: ‘The lime-mortar is not clean.’  
        We replied: ‘We shall plug therewith the privy holes.”  

I heard that he refused to comply with the behest of the king, began to argue and to look insolently; whereon the king ordered the sum in question to be released from his grasp by force and with a reprimand.

        If an affair cannot be accomplished with gentleness  
        He forsooth turns his head to impudence.  
        Who has no regard for himself  
        It is proper that no one should pay him any.