He washed and dressed and went with his Vizier to hold court. While there, he said to his courtiers: “There is a man living in a certain house, and his name is Abul, I want you to take to his mother a bag of a thousand rupees. Also go to the Musjid; catch the old Priest, give him one hundred stripes, put him and his four friends on donkeys, and drive them out of the city.”
All day Abul reigned as King, but when night came, the servants, who had been instructed what to do by the real King, once more put sleeping powder into his wine, and while he slept removed him to his own home, and put him into his own bed again.
When he awoke there in the morning he called to his servants, but no one answered, except his old mother, who came and stood beside him.
“Why do you call your servants?” she asked.
“Because I am a King,” he replied. “Who are you?”
“I am your mother, my son, and think you must be dreaming. If the King hears about this he will be so angry that perhaps he will have you killed. You are only the son of a poor man; and do not vex the King, for he has been very good, and sent us a present of a thousand rupees yesterday.”
Abul, however, would not listen, but kept on insisting that he was King, so at last the King had him locked up in prison, declaring that he must be mad. There he was kept until he ceased to say that he was King, and then he was released.
On his return home, he once more invited some strange men, and, as before, the King was amongst them, and again surreptitiously put the sleeping powder into Abul’s wine, and caused him to be removed and put into his Palace on his bed while he was unconscious.
Next morning on waking Abul felt sure that it must be a dream this time, and he kept rubbing his eyes and asking the servants who he was. The servants replied: “Why, you are our King.”
Abul was more than puzzled, and, pointing to his arms, which still bore the marks of bruises from stripes received in prison, said: “If I am really the King, why have I these bruises? I have been put in prison, and these are the marks where I was beaten.”