he returned to the burial-ground and gave not over going till he stood at the door of the Tower of Silence, when he heard the words of Al-Marwazi to his fellow, “I will not give thee a single dirham of the money!” The other said the same and they were occupied with brawling and abuse and talk.  So the robber returned in haste to his mates, who said, “What is behind thee?"[FN#473] Quoth he, “Get you gone and run for your lives, O fools, and save yourselves:  much people of the dead are come to life and between them are words and brawls.”  Hereat the robbers fled, whilst the two sharpers returned to the man of Rayy’s house and made peace and added the robbers’ spoil to the monies they had gained and lived a length of time.  “Nor, O king of the age” (continued the Wazir), “is this stranger or rarer than the story of the Four Sharpers with the Shroff and the Ass.”  When the king heard this story, he smiled and it pleased him and he bade the Minister to his own house.

The Twenty-second Night of the Month.

When the evening evened, King Shah Bakht summoned the Wazir and required of him the hearing of the story.  So Al-Rahwan said, “Hearkening and obedience.  Give ear, O King, to

The Tale of the Sharpers with the Shroff[FN#474] and the Ass.

Four sharpers once plotted against a Shroff, a man of much wealth, and agreed upon a sleight for securing some of his coins.  So one of them took an ass and laying on it a bag, wherein were dirhams, lighted down at the shop of the Shroff and sought of him small change.  The man of monies brought out to him the silver bits and bartered them with him, whilst the sharper was easy with him in the matter of exchange, so he might gar him long for more gain.  As they were thus, up came the other three sharpers and surrounded the donkey; and one of them said, “’Tis he,” and another said, “Wait till I look at him.”  Then he took to considering the ass and stroking him from crest[FN#475] to tail; whilst the third went up to him and handled him and felt him from head to rump, saying, “Yes, ’tis in him.”  Said another, “No, ’tis not in him;” and they left not doing the like of this for some time.  Then they accosted the donkey’s owner and chaffered with him and he said, “I will not sell him but for ten thousand dirhams.”  They offered him a thousand dirhams; but he refused and swore that he would not vend the ass but for that which he had said.  They ceased not adding to their offer till the price reached five thousand dirhams, whilst their mate still said, “I’ll not vend him save for ten thousand silver pieces.”  The Shroff advised him to sell, but he would not do this and said to him, “Ho, shaykh!  Thou wottest not the case of this donkey.  Stick to silver and gold and what pertaineth thereto of exchange and small change; because indeed the virtue of this ass is a mystery to thee.  For every craft its crafty men and for every means of livelihood its peculiar people.”  When the affair was prolonged