O God! the worshipper doth what he should not do; he is poor, depending on Thee:  In the pleasures of life he forgetteth himself, in his ignorance, pardon Thou his faults.

Then he cried again and said to himself, What shall I do?  If I set out for my country I may not reach it; if I arrive there, there will be no safety for my life on teh part of the Naib, and if I remain here nobody knoweth me among the beggars and I cannot be for them of any use nor for myself as an aid or an intermediate.  As for me, I had hope in that man, that he would raise me from my poverty.  The affair hath turned out contrary to my expectations, and the poet was right when he said:—­

O friend, I’ve run o’er the world west and east; all that I met with was pain
     and fatigue: 
I’ve frequented the men of the age, but never have found e’en a friend grateful
     not even to me.

Once more he cried and exclaimed, God give me the grace of patience.  After that he got up and walked away, and entered one of the mosks and staid there until afternoon.  His hunger increased and he said, By Thy magnanimity and Thy majesty I shall ask nothing of anyone but of Thee.  He remained in the mosk until it became dark when he went out for something, saying to himself, I have heard a call from the Prophet (on whom be the blessing and peace of Allah!) which said, God forbiddeth sleep in the Sanctuary and forbiddeth it to His worshippers.  Then he arose, and went out from the mosk to some distance when he entered a ruined building after walking an hour, and here he stumbled in the darkness and fell upon his face.  He saw something before him that he had struck with his foot and felt it move, and this was a lad that had been slain and a knife was in his side.  Attaf rose up from off the body, his clothes stained with blood; he stood motionless and embarrassed, and while in that situation the Wali and his policemen stood at the door of the ruin and Attaf said to them, Come in and search.  They entered with their torches and found the body of the murdered lad and the knife in him and the miserable Attaf standing at the head with his clothes stained with blood.  When a man with a scarf saw him he arrested him and said to him, O Wretch, ’tis thou killedst him.  Attaf said, Yes.  Then said the Wali, Pinion him and take him to prison until we make our report to the Wazir Ja’afar.  If he orders his death we will execute him.  They did as ordered, and the next day the man with the scarf wrote to the Wazir, We went into a ruin and found there a man who had killed a lad and we interrogated him and he confessed that it was he who had done the deed, what are thine orders?  The Wazir commanded them to put him to death; so they took Attaf from the prison to the place of execution and cut off a piece of his garment and with it bandaged his eyes.  The Sworder said, O my lord, shall I strike his neck? and the Wali said, Strike!  He brandished the