Then they all four arose, laying wagers with one another, and went forth, walking, from the palace-gate [and fared on] till they came in at the gate of the street in which Aboulhusn el Khelia dwelt.  He saw them and said to his wife Nuzhet el Fuad, “Verily, all that is sticky is not a pancake and not every time cometh the jar off safe.[FN#38]’ Meseemeth the old woman hath gone and told her lady and acquainted her with our case and she hath disputed with Mesrour the eunuch and they have laid wagers with one another about our death and are come to us, all four, the Khalif and the eunuch and the Lady Zubeideh and the old woman.”  When Nuzhet el Fuad heard this, she started up from her lying posture and said, “How shall we do?” And he said, “We will both feign ourselves dead and stretch ourselves out and hold our breath.”  So she hearkened unto him and they both lay down on the siesta[-carpet] and bound their feet and shut their eyes and covered themselves with the veil and held their breath.

Presently, up came the Khalif and the Lady Zubeideh and Mesrour and the old woman and entering, found Aboulhusn and his wife both stretched out [apparently] dead; which when the Lady Zubeideh saw, she wept and said, “They ceased not to bring [ill] news of my slave- girl, till she died; methinketh Aboulhusn’s death was grievous to her and that she died after him."[FN#39].  Quoth the Khalif, “Thou shalt not forestall me with talk and prate.  She certainly died before Aboulhusn, for he came to me with his clothes torn and his beard plucked out, beating his breast with two bricks, and I gave him a hundred dinars and a piece of silk and said to him, ’Go, carry her forth [and bury her] and I will give thee a concubine other than she and handsomer, and she shall be in stead of her.’  But it would appear that her death was no light matter to him and he died after her;[FN#40] so it is I who have beaten thee and gotten thy stake.”

The Lady Zubeideh answered him many words and the talk waxed amain between them.  At last the Khalif sat down at the heads of the pair and said, “By the tomb of the Apostle of God (may He bless and preserve him!) and the sepulchres of my fathers and forefathers, whoso will tell me which of them died before the other, I will willingly give him a thousand dinars!” When Aboulhusn heard the Khalifs words, he sprang up in haste and said, “I died first, O Commander of the Faithful!  Hand over the thousand dinars and quit thine oath and the conjuration by which thou sworest.”  Then Nuzhet el Fuad rose also and stood up before the Khalif and the Lady Zubeideh, who both rejoiced in this and in their safety, and the princess chid her slave-girl.  Then the Khalif and the Lady Zubeideh gave them joy at their well-being and knew that this [pretended] death was a device to get the money; and the princess said to Nuzhet el Fuad, “Thou shouldst have sought of me that which thou desiredst, without this fashion, and not have consumed my heart for thee.”  And she said, “Indeed, I was ashamed, O my lady.”