On the six hundred and fortieth night, Scheherazade turned the lamp a little higher and said: “Hear, O King, of a merchant who threw away a date stone.”
There was once a cloth merchant named Yusuf who travelled between Basra and the oasis towns. One hot afternoon he rested beneath a palm tree, ate a handful of dates, and flicked the stones carelessly over his shoulder. At once the sand began to whirl, and a towering jinni rose before him, his eyes blazing like coals.
“Wretch!” roared the jinni. “Your date stone struck my invisible son and hurt him. For that, I shall take your life!”
A Promise Kept in the Desert
Yusuf fell to his knees. “I meant no harm,” he pleaded. “Only grant me one year to settle my debts, say farewell to my children and give my goods to the poor. On the first day of the new year I will return to this very palm.” The jinni, surprised by such boldness, agreed.
Yusuf went home, paid every coin he owed and hugged his family. When the year ended, he kept his word and walked back into the desert.
There he met three strangers: an old man leading a gazelle, a second with two black hounds, and a third riding a grey mule. Hearing his tale, they marvelled. “A man who returns to his own doom deserves witnesses,” they said, and they sat down beside him.
Three Stories for One Life
Soon the sand whirled and the jinni appeared, raising his great sword. The first old man stepped forward. “Mighty one, if my story amazes you, will you grant me a third of this merchant’s punishment?” The jinni, who loved a good tale above all things, nodded.
So the old man told how his gazelle had once been a jealous wife, enchanted for her cruelty. The jinni gasped and forgave a third. The second told how his two hounds were brothers who had betrayed him at sea, and another third was forgiven. The third man’s tale of his mule was so strange that the jinni laughed until his sword fell into the sand.
“Go home, honest merchant,” the jinni said. “Your faithfulness bought you friends, and your friends bought you your life.”
Scheherazade smiled at the King. “A promise kept in fear, my lord, is worth more than a hundred kept in comfort, for truth draws good people close when we need them most.”
And as the first light touched the window, she fell silent, promising another wonder for the coming night.
