THE SIMPLETON AND THE SHARPER
A certain simpleton was once walking along, haling his ass after
him by the halter, when a pair of sharpers saw him and one said
to his fellow, "I will take that ass from yonder wight." Asked
the other, "How wilt thou do that?" "Follow me and I will show
thee how," answered the first. So the cony-catcher went up to
the ass and, loosing it from the halter, gave the beast to his
fellow; then he haltered his own head and followed Tom Fool till
he knew the other had got clean off with the ass, when he stood
still. The oaf haled at the halter, but the rascal stirred not;
so he turned and seeing the halter on a man's neck, said to him,
"What art thou?" Quoth the sharper, "I am thine ass and my story
is a wonderous one and ‘tis this. Know that I have a pious old
mother and come in to her one day, drunk; and she said to me: ‘O
my son, repent to the Almighty of these thy transgressions.' But
I took my staff and beat her, whereupon she cursed me and Allah
changed me into an ass and caused me fall into thy hands, where I
have remained till this moment. However, to-day, my mother
called me to mind and her heart yearned towards me; so she prayed
for me and the Lord restored me to my former shape amongst the
sons of Adam." Cried the silly one, "There is no Majesty and
there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great! Allah
upon thee, O my brother, acquit me of what I have done with thee
in the way of riding and so forth." Then he let the cony-catcher
go and returned home, drunken with chagrin and concern as with
wine. His wife asked him, "What aileth thee and where is the
donkey?"; and he answered, "Thou knowest not what was this ass;
but I will tell thee." So he told her the story, and she
exclaimed, "Alack and alas for the punishment we shall receive
from Almighty Allah! How could we have used a man as a beast of
burden, all this while? And she gave alms by way of atonement
and prayed pardon of Heaven.[FN#119] Then the man abode awhile
at home, idle and feckless, till she said to him, "How long wilt
thou sit at home doing naught? Go to the market and buy us an
ass and ply thy work with it." Accordingly, he went to the
market and stopped by the ass-stand, where behold, he saw his own
ass for sale. So he went up to it and clapping his mouth to its
ear, said to it, "Woe to thee, thou ne'er-do-well! Doubtless
thou hast been getting drunk again and beating thy mother! But,
by Allah, I will never buy thee more."[FN#120] and he left it
and went away. And they tell a tale concerning
