When I had made an end of washing, I cried out, saying, “Harkye, my lady Rihaneh!” But none answered me.  So I went out and found her not; and indeed she had taken my clothes and that which was therein of money, to wit, four hundred dirhems.  Moreover, she had taken my turban and my handkerchief and I found not wherewithal to cover my nakedness; wherefore I suffered somewhat than which death is less grievous and abode looking about the place, so haply I might espy wherewithal to hide my shame.  Then I sat a little and presently going up to the door, smote upon it; whereupon up came the housekeeper and I said to her, “O my sister, what hath God done with the woman who was here?” Quoth she, “She came down but now and said, ’I am going to cover the boys with the clothes and I have left him sleeping.  If he awake, tell him not to stir till the clothes come to him.’” Then said I, “O my sister, secrets are [safe] with the worthy and the freeborn.  By Allah, this woman is not my wife, nor ever in my life have I seen her before this day!” And I recounted to her the whole affair and begged her to cover me, informing her that I was discovered of the privities.

She laughed and cried out to the women of the house, saying, “Ho, Fatimeh!  Ho, Khedijeh!  Ho, Herifeh!  Ho, Senineh!” Whereupon all those who were in the place of women and neighbours flocked to me and fell a-laughing at me and saying, “O blockhead, what ailed thee to meddle with gallantry?” Then one of them came and looked in my face and laughed, and another said, “By Allah, thou mightest have known that she lied, from the time she said she loved thee and was enamoured of thee?  What is there in thee to love?” And a third said, “This is an old man without understanding.”  And they vied with each other in making mock of me, what while I suffered sore chagrin.

However, after awhile, one of the women took pity on me and brought me a rag of thin stuff and cast it on me.  With this I covered my privities, and no more, and abode awhile thus.  Then said I in myself, “The husbands of these women will presently gather together on me and I shall be disgraced.”  So I went out by another door of the house, and young and old crowded about me, running after me and saying, “A madman!  A madman!” till I came to my house and knocked at the door; whereupon out came my wife and seeing me naked, tall, bareheaded, cried out and ran in again, saying,"This is a madman, a Satan!” But, when she and my family knew me, they rejoiced and said to me, “What aileth thee?” I told them that thieves had taken my clothes and stripped me and had been like to kill me; and when I told them that they would have killed me, they praised God the Most High and gave me joy of my safety.  So consider the craft of this woman and this device that she practised upon me, for all my pretensions to sleight and quickwittedness.’

The company marvelled at this story and at the doings of women.  Then came forward a fourth officer and said, ’Verily, that which hath betided me of strange adventures is yet more extraordinary than this; and it was on this wise.