Tale 6.—­The Khoja’s Gown.

One day the Khoja’s wife, having washed her husband’s gown, hung it out in the garden to dry.

Now in the dusk of the evening the Khoja repaired to his garden, where he saw, as he believed, a thief standing with outstretched arms.

“O you rascal!” he cried, “is it you who steal my fruit?  But you shall do so no more.”

And having called to his wife for his bow and arrows, the Khoja took aim and pierced his gown through the middle.  Then without waiting to see the result he hastened into his house, secured the door with much care, and retired to rest.

When morning dawned, the Khoja went out into the garden, where perceiving that what he had hit was his own gown, he seated himself and returned thanks to the All-merciful Disposer of Events.

“Truly,” said he, “I have had a narrow escape.  If I had been inside it, I should have been dead long before this!”

Tale 7.—­The Khoja and the Fast of Ramadan.

In a certain year, when the holy month of the fast of Ramadan was approaching, Khoja Nasr-ed-Deen took counsel with himself and resolved not to observe it.

“Truly,” said he, “there is no necessity that I should fast like the common people.  I will rather provide myself with a vase into which I will drop a stone every day.  When there are thirty pebbles in the vase, I shall know that Ramadan is over, and I shall then be able to keep the feast of Bairam at the proper season.”

Accordingly, on the first day of the month the Khoja dropped a stone into the vase, and so he continued to do day by day.

Now the Khoja had a little daughter, and it came to pass that one day the child, having observed the pebbles in the vase, went out and gathered a handful and added them to the rest.  But her father was not aware of it.

[Illustration:  THE KHOJA COUNTS.]

On the twenty-fifth day of Ramadan the Khoja met at the Bazaar with certain of his neighbours, who said to him, “Be good enough, most learned Khoja, to tell us what day of the month it is.”

“Wait a bit, and I will see,” replied the Khoja.  Saying this, he ran to his house, emptied the vase, and began to count the stones.  To his amazement he found that there were a hundred and twenty!

“If I say as much as this,” thought the Khoja, “they will call me a fool.  Even half would be more than could be believed.”

So he went back to the Bazaar and said, “It is the full forty-fifth of the month, quite that.”

“O Khoja!” the neighbours replied, “there are only thirty days in a complete month, and do you tell us to-day is the forty-fifth?”

“O neighbours!” answered the Khoja, “believe me, I speak with moderation.  If you look into the vase, you will find that according to its account to-day is the one hundred and twentieth.”

Tale 8.—­The Khoja and the Thief.