To this Asmut replied, "By your leave, not so fast. We desired, indeed, that you should set a price on each of the slaves that we might decide our dispute as to which of them is the better. But I by no means intended or bound myself to accept any sum you might mention for the slaves, whom I am in no hurry to dispose of."
"Very well," said the Caliph, who was quite unused to the chaffering of merchants, although he had assumed the garb of one, "if the price I have named does not content you, name your own price, for, in short, the slaves I will have."
Asmut, after a few moments' consideration as to the highest sum he could ask without going beyond what it seemed possible to obtain from this very frank and eager buyer, said—
"The prices you have named, although no doubt large, are, in my opinion, so much below the real value of two beauties of such surpassing excellence, that I must insist on twice as much as you have offered, namely, twenty thousand dinars for the one and eighty thousand for the other."
The Caliph laughed and said, "Verily you are not a merchant for naught, and you do not underestimate the worth of your own wares. Nevertheless, I will give you your price."
The slave merchants could make no objection to this prompt agreement to their terms; on the contrary, it suited their plans very well. Yet, in order to appear indifferent and little anxious to conclude the business with any undue haste and precipitancy, Asmut said—
"To-morrow, however, will be early enough to produce the money. It is now dark and grows late, and besides, whom can you send?"
"I have a man whom I can send," said the Caliph, "for my servant will have followed us here, and I will despatch him at once for the money."
And in fact Giafer, going to the gate, beckoned to Mesrúr, who had followed them as usual, and who was waiting for them outside, and not far from the house he had seen them enter.
The Caliph, taking out his tablets, wrote a few words to his treasurer, bidding him send at once by Mesrúr, and in the hands of two slaves, the sum of one hundred thousand dinars. This note he delivered to Mesrúr, who saluted his master and immediately departed on his errand.