The Turkman Children
“Certain Turkmans from an encampment went one day into a city. When they were returning from the city to the encampment they were an hungered, and when they were come near they ate some bread and onions at a spring-head. The juice of the onions went into the Turkmans’ eyes, and the tears came forth from their eyes. Now the children of the Turkmans had gone out to meet them, and they saw that the tears were streaming from their fathers’ eyes and they thought that some one of them had died in the city. So without asking and without knowing, they ran back and came to the encampment and said to their mothers, ‘One of ours is dead in the city, our fathers are coming weeping,’ All the women and children of that encampment came forth to meet them, weeping together. The Turkmans who were coming from the city thought that one of theirs had died in the encampment; so were they without knowledge one of the other, and they raised a weeping and crying together such that it cannot be described.
“At length the elders of the camp stood up in the midst and said, ‘May all ye remain whole; the command is God’s, there is none other help than patience.’ And they questioned them. The Turkmans who were coming from the city asked, ‘Who is dead in the encampment?’ The others said, ‘No one is dead in the encampment; who has died in the city?’ Those coming from the city answered, ‘No one has died in the city.’ They said, ‘Then for whom are we wailing and lamenting?’ At length they perceived that all this tumult arose from their thus trusting the words of children.
“Now, O king, I have told this story for that the king may know that confusion like to that is brought about by youths. What I know is this, if thou slay not the youth he will slay thee.” When the king heard these words from the lady he said, “To-morrow will I kill him.”
When it was morning the king came and sat upon his throne, and he caused the youth to be brought and ordered the executioner, “Smite off his head.” The twenty-first vezir came forward and said, “O king of the world, yesterday, when reading in a book, I saw that they had written that there was a great king in the land of Hindustan, and in his time there was a work on wisdom, and they laded three camels with it and brought it to him. One day the king said to the sages, ‘Abridge this book for me, that I may study it.’ Then all the sages of Hind came together and collected the necessary words from that work and made a book. When the king read it he was pleased. And the words that they wrote were these: ‘O king, be not presumptuous, being deceived by the world; for the world showeth itself like a fair woman and fondleth men in its bosom; and when they are asleep and heedless, of a sudden it woundeth and slayeth them. Knowing of a surety that it is thus, have care if it offer itself to thee, that thou keep thyself from it, so that thou be prosperous. And expend what thou gainest of wealth in the way of God most high, and guard against iniquity, and show forth thy name through generosity, and abandon avarice.
“‘O king, the light of the world is darkness, and its newness is oldness, and its being is non-being. O king, strive that thou save thyself from it; and incline not to the amassing of unlawful wealth, for it will pass from thy hand and be a woe to thee. Strive to collect wealth lawfully, and expend it on good works, and show thyself just among the folk to the utmost of thy power, that all the people of the world may love thee, and that thou be secured against the punishment of God most high. And guard thy faith for the hereafter. And love not women and tell not them thy secrets. O king, be not deceived by womankind; for in body are they weak, but in guile are they strong.’ Now, O king, these counsels are exceeding good counsels, and it behooves the king to keep them; and their saying is true that women are weak in body but strong in guile. Mayhap the king has not heard what befell a certain king with a woman.” The king said, “Relate it, let us hear.” Quoth the vezir: