WATER-CARRIER[FN#126] AND THE GOLDSMITH'S
WIFE
There was once, in the city of Bokhara, a water-carrier, who used
to carry water to the house of a goldsmith and had done this
thirty years. Now that goldsmith had a wife of exceeding beauty
and loveliness, brilliancy and perfect grace; and she was withal
renowned for piety, chastity and modesty. One day the water-
carrier came, as of custom, and poured the water into the
cisterns. Now the woman was standing in the midst of the court;
so he went close up to her and taking her hand, stroked it and
pressed it, then went away and left her. When her husband came
home from the bazar, she said to him, "I would have thee tell me
what thing thou hast done in the market this day, to anger
Almighty Allah." Quoth he, "I have done nothing to offend the
Lord." "Nay," rejoined she, "but, by Allah, thou hast indeed
done something to anger Him; and unless thou tell me the whole
truth, I will not abide in thy house, and thou shalt not see me,
nor will I see thee." So he confessed, "I will tell thee the
truth of what I did this day. It so chanced that, as I was
sitting in my shop, as of wont, a woman came up to me and bade me
make her a bracelet of gold. Then she went away and I wrought
her a bracelet and laid it aside. But when she returned and I
brought her out the bracelet, she put forth her hand and I
clasped the bracelet on her wrist; and I wondered at the
whiteness of her hand and the beauty of her wrist, which would
captivate any beholder; and I recalled what the poet saith,
‘Her fore-arms, dight with their bangles, show *
Like fire ablaze on the waves a-flow;
As by purest gold were the water girt, *
And belted around by a living lowe.'
So I took her hand and pressed it and squeezed it." Said the
woman, "Great God! Why didst thou this ill thing? Know that the
water-carrier, who hath come to our house these thirty years, nor
sawst thou ever any treason in him took my hand this day and
pressed and squeezed it." Said her husband, "O woman, let us
crave pardon of Allah! Verily, I repent of what I did, and do
thou ask forgiveness of the Lord for me." She cried, "Allah
pardon me and thee, and receive us into his holy keeping."--And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.
When it was the Three hundred and Ninety-first Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the
goldsmith's wife cried out, "Allah pardon me and thee, and
receive us into his holy keeping!" And on the next day, the
water-carrier came in to the jeweller's wife and, throwing
himself at her feet, grovelled in the dust and besought pardon of
her, saying, "O my lady, acquit me of that which Satan deluded me
to do; for it was he that seduced me and led me astray." She
answered, "Go thy ways, the sin was not in thee, but in my
husband, for that he did what he did in his shop, and Allah hath
retaliated upon him in this world." And it related that the
goldsmith, when his wife told him how the water-carrier had used
her, said, "Tit for tat, and blow for blow!; had I done more the
water-carrier had done more";--which became a current byword
among the folk. Therefore it behoveth a wife to be both outward
and inward with her husband; contenting herself with little from
him, if he cannot give her much, and taking pattern by Ayishah
the Truthful and Fatimah the virgin mother (Allah Almighty accept
of them the twain!), that she may be of the company of the
righteous ancestry.[FN#127] And I have heard the following tale
of
