My wife was like one distracted, when she knew what a fault she had committed through ignorance.  She cried, beat her breast, and tore her hair and clothes.  “Unhappy wretch that I am,” cried she, “am I fit to live after so dreadful a mistake!  Where shall I find this sandman?  I know him not, I never saw him in our street before.  Oh! husband,” added she, “you were much to blame to be so reserved in a matter of such importance This had never happened, if you had communicated the secret to me.”  In short, I should never finish my story were I to tell your majesty what her grief made her say.  You are not ignorant how eloquent women often are in their afflictions.

“Wife,” said I, “moderate your grief:  by your weeping and howling you will alarm the neighbourhood, and there is no reason they should be informed of our misfortunes.  They will only laugh at, instead of pitying us.  We had best bear our loss patiently, and submit ourselves to the will of God, and bless him, for that out of two hundred pieces of gold which he had given us, he has taken back but a hundred and ninety, and left us ten, which, by the use I shall make of them will be a great relief to us.”

My wife at first did not relish my arguments; but as time softens the greatest misfortunes, and makes them more supportable, she at last grew easy, and had almost forgotten them.  “It is true,” said I to her, “we live but poorly; but what have the rich which we have not?  Do not we breathe the same air, enjoy the same light and the same warmth of the sun?  Therefore what conveniences have they more than we, that we should envy their happiness?  They die as well as we.  In short, while we live in the fear of God, as we should always do, the advantage they have over us is so very inconsiderable, that we ought not to covet it.”

I will not tire your majesty any longer with my moral reflections.  My wife and I comforted ourselves, and I pursued my trade with as much alacrity as before these two mortifying losses, which followed one another so quickly.  The only thing that troubled me sometimes was, how I should look Saadi in the face when he should come and ask me how I had improved his two hundred pieces of gold, and advanced my fortune by means of his liberality.  I saw no remedy but to resolve to submit to the confusion I should feel, though it was by no fault of mine this time, any more than before, that our misfortune had happened.

The two friends stayed away longer this time than the former, though Saad had often spoken to Saadi, who always put it off; for, said he, “The longer we stay away, the richer Hassan will be, and I shall have the greater satisfaction.”

Saad, who had not the same opinion of the effect of his friend’s generosity, replied, “You fancy then that your last present will have been turned to a better account than the former.  I would advise you not to flatter yourself too much, for fear you may be more sensibly mortified if it should prove otherwise.”  “Why,” replied Saadi, “vultures do not fly away with turbans every day; and Hassan will have been more cautious this time.”