Then, in his anger, he walled up the door of the granary with clay, and by the ordinance of God the Most High, there came a great rain and descended from the roofs of the house wherein was the wheat [so that the latter rotted]; and needs must the merchant give the porters five hundred dirhems from his purse, so they should carry it forth and cast it without the city, for that the smell of it was noisome.  So his friend said to him, ’How often did I tell thee thou hadst no luck in wheat?  But thou wouldst not give ear to my speech, and now it behoveth thee to go to the astrologer and question him of thy star.’  Accordingly the merchant betook himself to the astrologer and questioned him of his star, and the astrologer said to him, ’Thy star is unpropitious.  Put not thy hand to any business, for thou wilt not prosper therein.’  However, he paid no heed to the astrologer’s words and said in himself, ’If I do my occasion,[FN#103] I am not afraid of aught.’  Then he took the other part of his money, after he had spent therefrom three years, and built [therewith] a ship, which he loaded with all that seemed good to him and all that was with him and embarked on the sea, so he might travel.

The ship tarried with him some days, till he should be certified what he would do,[FN#104] and he said, ’I will enquire of the merchants what this merchandise profiteth and in what country it lacketh and how much is the gain thereon.’ [So he questioned them and] they directed him to a far country, where his dirhem should profit a hundredfold.  Accordingly, he set sail and steered for the land in question; but, as he went, there blew on him a tempestuous wind and the ship foundered.  The merchant saved himself on a plank and the wind cast him up, naked as he was, on the sea-shore, hard by a town there.  So he praised God and gave Him thanks for his preservation; then, seeing a great village hard by, he betook himself thither and saw, seated therein, a very old man, whom he acquainted with his case and that which had betided him.  The old man grieved sore for him, when he heard his story, and set food before him.  So he ate and the old man said to him, ’Abide here with me, so I may make thee my steward and factor over a farm I have here, and thou shall have of me five dirhems [FN#105] a day.’  ‘God make fair thy reward,’ answered the merchant, ‘and requite thee with benefits!’

So he abode in this employ, till he had sowed and reaped and threshed and winnowed, and all was sheer in his hand and the owner appointed neither inspector nor overseer, but relied altogether upon him.  Then he bethought himself and said, ’I* misdoubt me the owner of this grain will not give me my due; so I were better take of it, after the measure of my hire; and if he give me my due, I will restore him that which I have taken.’  So he took of the grain, after the measure of that which fell to him, and hid it in a privy place.  Then he carried the rest to the old man and meted it out to him, and he said to him, ’Come, take [of the grain, after the measure of] thy hire, for which I agreed with thee, and sell it and buy with the price clothes and what not else; and though thou abide with me half a score years, yet shall thou still have this wage and I will acquit it to thee thus.’  Quoth the merchant in himself, ’Indeed, I have done a foul thing in that I look it without his leave.’