THE ARABIAN NIGHTS
Sir Richard Burton, translator
1850
THE ARABIAN NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENTS
(ALF LAYLAH WA LAYLAH)
THE RUINED MAN WHO BECAME RICH AGAIN THROUGH A DREAM
THERE lived once in Baghdad a wealthy man and made of money, who lost all his
substance and became so destitute that he could earn his living only by hard labor.
One night he lay down to sleep dejected and heavyhearted, and saw in a dream a
speaker who said to him, "Verily thy fortune is in Cairo. Go thither and seek
it." So he set out for Cairo, but when he arrived there, evening overtook him
and he lay down to sleep in a mosque. Presently, by decree of Allah Almighty a
band of bandits entered the mosque and made their way thence into an adjoining
house, but the owners, being aroused by the noise of the thieves, awoke and cried
out. Whereupon the Chief of Police came to their aid with his officers.
The robbers made off, but the Wali entered the mosque, and finding the man
from Baghdad asleep there, laid hold of him and beat him with palm rods so grievous
a beating that he was well-nigh dead. Then they cast him into jail, where he abode
three days, after which the Chief of Police sent for him and asked him, "Whence
art thou?" and he answered, "From Baghdad." Quoth the Wali, "And what brought
thee to Cairo?" and quoth the Baghdadi, "I saw in a dream One who said to me,
'Thy fortune is in Cairo. Go thither to it.' But when I came to Cairo the fortune
which he promised me proved to be the palm rods thou so generously gavest to me."
The Wali laughed till he showed his wisdom teeth and said, "O man of little
wit, thrice have I seen in a dream one who said to me: 'There is in Baghdad a
house in such a district and of such a fashion and its courtyard is laid out gardenwise,
at the lower end whereof is a jetting fountain and under the same a great sum
of money lieth buried. Go thither and take it.' Yet I went not, but thou, of the
briefness of thy wit, hast journeyed from place to place on the faith of a dream,
which was but an idle galimatias of sleep."
Then he gave him money, saying, "Help thee back herewith to thine own country,"
and he took the money and set out upon his homeward march. Now the house the Wali
had described was the man's own house in Baghdad, so the wayfarer returned thither
and, digging underneath the fountain in his garden, discovered a great treasure.
And thus Allah gave him abundant fortune, and a marvelous coincidence occurred.
