My brother and the other two blind men would have cleared themselves of this horrid cheat, but the judge would not hear them:  Villains! said he, do you feign yourselves blind then, and under that pretext cheat people, by begging their charity, and abusing poor women?  He is a cheat, cried my brother; we take God to witness that none of us can see!

All that my brother could say was in vain; his comrades and he received each of them two hundred blows.  The judge looked always when they should have opened their eyes, and ascribed to their obstinacy what really they could not do.  All the while the highwayman said to the blind men, Poor fools that you are, open your eyes, and do not suffer yourselves to be killed with blows.  Then addressing himself to the judge, said, I perceive, sir, that they will be maliciously obstinate to the last, and will never open their eyes:  they have a mind certainly to avoid the shame of reading their own condemnation in the face of every one who looks upon them; it were better, if you think fit, to pardon them, and to send some person along with me for the ten thousand drams they have hid.

The judge did so, gave the highwayman two thousand five hundred drams, and kept the rest to himself; and as for my brother and his two companions, he thought he showed them a great deal of pity by sentencing them only to be banished.  As soon as I heard what befel my brother, I ran after him; he told me his misfortune, and I brought him back secretly to the town.  I could easily have justified him to the judge, and have got the highwayman punished as he deserved, but durst not attempt it, for fear of bringing myself into trouble.  Thus I finished the sad adventure of my honest blind brother.  The caliph laughed at it, as much as at those he had heard before, and ordered again that something should be given me; but, without staying for it, I began the story of my fourth brother.

THE STORY OF THE BARBER’S FOURTH BROTHER.

Alcouz was the name of my fourth brother, who came to lose one of his eyes upon an occasion that I shall by and by acquaint your majesty with.  He was a butcher by profession, and had a particular way of teaching rams to fight by which he procured the acquaintance and friendship of the chief lords of the country, who loved that sport, and for that end kept rams about their houses:  he had, besides, a very good trade, and had his shop always full of the best meat, because he was very rich, and spared no cost for the best of every sort.  One day, when he was in his shop, an old man with a long white beard came and bought six pounds of meat, gave him money for it, and went his way.  My brother thought the money so fine, so white, and so well coined, that he put it apart by itself:  the same old man came every day for five months together, bought a like quantity of meat, and paid for it in the same sort of money, which my brother continued to lay apart by itself.