“You do well to remind me,” replied the caliph, “for I had entirely forgotten it; go and change your dress, while I do the same.”

They each put on the habit of a foreign merchant, and under that disguise went out by a private door of the palace-garden, which led into the country.  After they had gone round part of the city to the banks of the Euphrates, at some distance from the walls, without having observed anything disorderly, they crossed the river in the first boat they met, and making a tour on the other side, crossed the bridge, which formed the communication betwixt the two parts of the town.

At the foot of this bridge they met an old blind man, who asked alms of them; the caliph turned about, and put a piece of gold into his hand.  The blind man instantly caught hold of his hand, and stopped him; “Charitable person,” said he, “whoever you are, whom God hath inspired to bestow alms on me, do not refuse the favour I ask of you, to give me a box on the ear, for I deserve that, and a greater punishment.”  Having thus spoken, he let the caliph’s hand go, that he might strike, but for fear he should pass on without doing it, held him fast by his clothes.

The caliph, surprised both at the words and action of the blind man, said, “I cannot comply with your request.  I will not lessen the merit of my charity, by treating you as you would have me.”  After these words, he endeavoured to get away from the blind man.

The blind man, who expected this reluctance of his benefactor, exerted himself to detain him.  “Sir,” said he, “forgive my boldness and importunity; I desire you would either give me a box on the ear, or take your alms back again, for I cannot receive it but on that condition, without breaking a solemn oath, which I have sworn to God; and if you knew the reason, you would agree with me that the punishment is very slight.”

The caliph, unwilling to be detained any longer, yielded to the importunity of the blind man, and gave him a very slight blow:  whereupon he immediately let him go, thanked and blessed him.  When the caliph and vizier had got so me small distance from the blind man, the caliph said to Jaaffier, “This blind man must certainly have some very uncommon reasons, which make him behave himself in this manner to all who give him alms.  I should be glad to know them; therefore return, tell him who I am, and bid him not fail to come to my palace about prayer-time in the afternoon of to-morrow, that I may have some conversation with him.”

The grand vizier returned, bestowed his alms on the blind man, and after he had given him a box on the ear, told him the caliph’s order, and then returned to the caliph.

When they came into the town, they found in a square a great crowd of spectators, looking at a handsome well-shaped young man, who was mounted on a mare, which he drove and urged full speed round the place, spurring and whipping the poor creature so barbarously, that she was all over sweat and blood.