His friend asked him, "What golden dinars did you leave with me? You left only that skin of oil, which I have now returned to you. I have kept it all these days for you, and now you accuse me of having taken some golden dinars."
So the merchant said, "The golden dinars were in the bottom of that skin of oil, but now they are not there."
The Merchant and his oil-skin.
His friend said to him, "You are a very cunning man. You told me yourself that it was only a skin of oil you left me. Now you say that it was full of dinars, that I may be beaten and imprisoned without cause."
Then was the merchant exceedingly angry, and went straightway to accuse his friend before the Sultan. So the Sultan had his friend called and asked him, "Did the merchant leave with you a skin full of dinars?"
The friend replied, "No, by Allah, he left with me only a skin of oil, and that I have returned."
The merchant said, "By Allah, three years ago, when I left on a journey, I entrusted him with a skin full of dinars, but my heart was afraid, and so I told him that it was a skin of coco-nut oil. On my return, when I searched in the skin, I found but oil, and that the dinars had been extracted."
The friend said, "By Allah, it was a skin of oil he left with me, and I gave it him back unopened as I had received it."
When the Sultan had heard the words of both men he was unable to decide which of the two was in the wrong, and so he dismissed the case. Now the merchant left the audience hall, and his heart was very sore at the loss of his wealth. As he went forth he met an oil merchant of that town, and he asked of him the news, and he told him the whole story from the beginning to the end.