It chanced one day that they sallied forth to stop the way and fell in upon a caravan in the night; but the people of the caravan were on their guard; so they joined battle with the robbers and overcame them and slew them and the boy fell wounded and abode cast down in that place till the morrow, when he opened his eyes and finding his comrades slain, lifted himself up and rose to walk in the way.  Presently, there met him a man, a treasure-seeker, and said to him, ‘Whither goest thou, O youth?’ So he told him what had betided him and the other said, ’Be of good heart, for that [the season of] thy fair fortune is come and God bringeth thee joy and solace.  I am one who am in quest of a hidden treasure, wherein is vast wealth.  So come with me, that thou mayst help me, and I will give thee wealth, wherewith thou shalt provide thyself thy life long.’  Then he carried the youth to his dwelling and dressed his wound, and he abode with him some days, till he was rested; when he took him and two beasts and all that he needed, and they fared on till they came to a precipitous mountain.

Here the treasure-seeker brought out a book and reading therein, dug in the crest of the mountain five cubits deep, whereupon there appeared to him a stone.  He pulled it up and behold, it was a trap-door covering the mouth of a pit.  So he waited till the [foul] air was come forth from the midst of the pit, when he bound a rope about the boy’s middle and let him down to the bottom, and with him a lighted flambeau.  The boy looked and beheld, at the upper end of the pit, wealth galore; so the treasure-seeker let down a rope and a basket and the boy fell to filling and the man to drawing up, till the latter had gotten his sufficiency, when he loaded his beasts and did his occasion, whilst the boy looked for him to let down to him the rope and draw him up; but he rolled a great stone to the mouth of the pit and went away.

When the boy saw what the treasure-seeker had done with him he committed his affair to God (extolled be His perfection and exalted be He!) and abode perplexed concerning his case and said, ‘How bitter is this death!’ For that indeed the world was darkened on him and the pit was blinded to him.  So he fell a-weeping and saying, ’I was delivered from the lion and the thieves and now is my death [appointed to be] in this pit, where I shall die lingeringly.’  And he abode confounded and looked for nothing but death.  As he pondered [his affair], behold, he heard a sound of water running with a mighty noise; so he arose and walked in the pit, following after the sound, till he came to a corner and heard the mighty running of water.  So he laid his ear to the sound of the current and hearing it a great strength, said in himself, ’This is the running of a mighty water and needs must I die in this place, be it to-day or to-morrow; so I will cast myself into the water and not die a lingering death in this pit.’