All that my brother could say was in vain, his comrades and he received each of them two hundred blows.  The judge expected them to open their eyes, and ascribed to their obstinacy what really they could not do.  All the while the robber said to the blind men, “Poor fools that you are, open your eyes, and do not suffer yourselves to be beaten to death.”  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 wish certainly to avoid the shame of reading their own condemnation in the face of every one that 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 dirhems they have hidden.”

The judge consented to give the robber two thousand five hundred dirhems, and kept the rest himself; and as for my brother and his two companions, he thought he shewed them pity by sentencing them only to be banished.  As soon as I heard what had befallen my brother, I went to 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 had the robber punished as he deserved, but durst not make the attempt, for fear of bringing myself into danger of assassination.  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 the fourth brother who lost one of his eyes, upon an occasion that I shall have the honour to relate to your majesty.  He was a butcher by profession, and had a particular way of teaching rams to fight, by which he gained the acquaintance and friendship of the chief lords of the country, who loved that sport, and for that end kept rams at their houses.  He had besides a very good trade, and had his shop always full of the best meat, because he spared no cost for the prime 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 of him, gave him money for it, and went his way.  My brother thought the money so pure and 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 kind of money, which my brother continued to lay apart.

At the end of five months, Alcouz having a mind to buy a lot of sheep, and to pay for them in this money, opened his chest; but instead of finding his money, was extremely surprised to see nothing in the place where he had laid it, but a parcel of leaves clipped round.  He beat his head, and cried out aloud, which presently brought the neighbours about him, who were as much surprised as he, when he told them the story.  “O!” cried my brother,