TALE OF THE MOUSE AND THE ICHNEUMON[FN#165]
A mouse and an ichneumon once dwelt in the house of a peasant who
was very poor; and when one of his friends sickened, the doctor
prescribed him husked sesame. So the hind sought of one of his
comrades sesame to be husked by way of healing the sick man; and,
when a measure thereof was given to him, he carried it home to
his wife and bade her dress it. So she steeped it and husked it
and spread it out to dry. Now when the ichneumon saw the grain,
she went up to it and fell to carrying it away to her hole, and
she toiled all day, till she had borne off the most of it.
Presently, in came the peasant's wife and, seeing much of the
grain gone, stood awhile wondering; after which she sat down to
watch and find out who might be the intruder and make him account
for her loss. After a while, out crept the ichneumon to carry
off the grain as was her wont, but spying the woman seated there,
knew that she was on the watch for her and said in her mind,
"Verily, this affair is like to end blameably; and sore I fear me
this woman is on the look-out for me, and Fortune is no friend to
who attend not to issue and end: so there is no help for it but
that I do a fair deed, whereby I may manifest my innocence and
wash out all the ill-doings I have done." So saying, she began
to take the sesame out of her hole and carry it forth and lay it
back upon the rest. The woman stood by and, seeing the ichneumon
do thus, said to herself, "Verily this is not the cause of our
loss, for she bringeth it back from the hole of him who stole it
and returneth it to its place; and of a truth she hath done us a
kindness in restoring us the sesame, and the reward of those who
do us good is that we do them the like good. It is clear that it
is not she who stole the grain; but I will not cease my watching
till he fall into my hands and I find out who is the thief." The
ichneumon guess what was in her mind, so she went to the mouse
and said to her, "O my sister, there is no good in one who
observeth not the claims of neighborship and who showeth no
constancy in friendship." The mouse replied, "Even so, O my
friend, and I delight in thee and in they neighborhood; but what
be the motive of this speech?" Quoth the ichneumon, "The house-
master hath brought home sesame and hath eaten his fill of it, he
and his family, and hath left much; every living being hath eaten
of it and, if thou take of it in they turn, thou art worthier
thereof than any other." This pleased the mouse and she squeaked
for joy and danced and frisked her ears and tail, and greed for
the grain deluded her; so she rose at once and issuing forth of
her home, saw the sesame husked and dry, shining with whiteness,
and the woman sitting at watch and ward. The mouse, taking no
thought to the issue of the affair (for the woman had armed
herself with a cudgel), and unable to contain herself, ran up to
the sesame and began turning it over and eating of it; whereupon
the woman smote her with that club and cleft her head: so the
cause of her destruction were her greed and heedlessness of
consequences. Then said the Sultan, "O Shahrazad, by Allah! this
be a goodly parable! Say me, hast thou any story bearing on the
beauty of true friendship and the observance of its duty in time
of distress and rescuing from destruction?" Answered she:--Yes,
it hath reached me that they tell a tale of
