When the affair was prolonged upon the three sharpers, they went away and sat down a little apart; then they came up to the money-changer privily and said to him, ’If thou canst buy him for us, do so, and we will give thee a score of dirhems.’  Quoth he, ‘Go away and sit down afar from him.’  So they did his bidding and the money-changer went up to the owner of the ass and gave not over tempting him with money and cajoling him and saying, ’Leave yonder fellows and sell me the ass, and I will reckon him a gift from thee,’ till he consented to sell him the ass for five thousand and five hundred dirhems.  Accordingly the money-changer counted down to him five thousand and five hundred dirhems of his own money, and the owner of the ass took the price and delivered the ass to him, saying, ’Whatsoever betideth, though he abide a deposit about thy neck,[FN#46] sell him not to yonder rogues for less than ten thousand dirhems, for that they would fain buy him because of a hidden treasure whereof they know, and nought can guide them thereto but this ass.  So close thy hand on him and gainsay me not, or thou wilt repent.’

So saying, he left him and went away, whereupon up came the three other sharpers, the comrades of him of the ass, and said to the money-changer, ’God requite thee for us with good, for that thou hast bought him!  How can we requite thee!’ Quoth he, ’I will not sell him but for ten thousand dirhems.’  When they heard this, they returned to the ass and fell again to examining him and handling him.  Then said they to the money-changer, ’We were mistaken in him.  This is not the ass we sought and he is not worth more than half a score paras to us.’  Then they left him and offered to go away, whereat the money-changer was sore chagrined and cried out at their speech, saying, ’O folk, ye besought me to buy him for you and now I have bought him, ye say, “We were deceived [in him], and he is not worth more than ten paras to us."’ Quoth they, ’We supposed that in him was that which we desired; but, behold, in him is the contrary of that which we want; and indeed he hath a default, for that he is short of back.’  And they scoffed at him and went away from him and dispersed.

The money-changer thought they did but finesse with him, that they might get the ass at their own price; but, when they went away from him and he had long in vain awaited their return, he cried out, saying, ‘Woe!’ and ‘Ruin!’ and ’Alack, my sorry chance!’ and shrieked aloud and tore his clothes.  So the people of the market assembled to him and questioned him of his case; whereupon he acquainted them with his plight and told them what the sharpers had said and how they had beguiled him and how it was they who had cajoled him into buying an ass worth half a hundred dirhems[FN#47] for five thousand and five hundred.[FN#48] His friends blamed him and a company of the folk laughed at him and marvelled at his folly and his credulity in accepting the sharpers’ talk, without suspicion, and meddling with that which he understood not and thrusting himself into that whereof he was not assured.