“So things went on for one more year, and another, and another, till the fifth year of my sojourn among these simple people was completed.
“I was in complete control of the pipkin trade, making all the pipkins that the nation needed, and free from any rival. The house which I had built for myself was the finest in the place, but covered, I humbly add, with many a sacred text. Above its vast horseshoe gate, ablaze with azure tiles, was inscribed in gold the sentence, ‘Wealth is of God alone.’
“I was popularly known as ‘Melek-al-Tawajin,’ or the Pipkin King, but officially decorated with the local title of ‘Warzan Dahur,’ which was the highest they knew and signifies ‘Leader in battle.’ I was entitled to wear a sword with a silver hilt in a jewelled scabbard, an ornament of which I was justly proud, but the blade of which I very sensibly kept blunt lest my servant should cut himself when he polished it, or even I should inadvertently do myself a mischief when I pulled it out with a flourish to display it to my guests, or saluted with it on parade. I had become a most intimate companion of the Court and was the most trusted counsellor of the King, to whose wives also I often lent small sums of money; nor did I ask to be repaid.
“In such a situation I mused upon my condition, and felt within me strange promptings for a new and larger life. I was now well advanced in manhood, I was filled with desires for action and device which the narrow field of that happy but restricted place could not fulfil. I longed for adventurous action in a larger world.
“The output and consumption of pipkins was at an exact unchangeable level; the revenue a fixed amount. The profit of the trade I held came to some 20,000 dinars in the year, the full purchase of which should be, say, 200,000 dinars.
“I prayed earnestly for guidance, and one night as I so prayed an idea was revealed to me by the Most High.
“I approached the King and told him how, all my life, I had nourished the secret belief that a trade necessary to the whole community should not, in justice, be controlled by a private individual, but should rather be the full property of the State, of which His Majesty was the sole guardian.
“The King listened to me with rapt attention as I unfolded with an inspired eloquence my faith that no one man should intercept profits which were due to the work of all. ‘It is your majesty,’ I cried, ‘who alone should have control over what concerns the body corporate of your people.’ He and he alone should superintend the purchase of pipkins, should regulate their sales, should receive all sums paid for them, and should use that revenue as he might think best for himself and the commonwealth. ‘While I was struggling in the dust and confusion of commercial life,’ I concluded, ‘I had no leisure to work out my scheme in its entirety, nor even to appreciate its serene equity—but now ... now, I see, I understand, I know!’
“Carried away by the fire of my conviction, my Royal Master could no longer brook delay. He bade me put the idea in its main lines before him at once, and assured me it should at once be put into execution.
“I thereupon pulled out a paper showing that since I was fully agreeable to take no more than the cash value of the trade plus goodwill and plus certain probable gains which I might reasonably expect in the future, I would be amply compensated if I were to hand all over to the Commonwealth for the merely nominal sum of half a million dinars—500,000. ‘A sum which,’ I continued, ‘is of little moment to your Majesty; especially as it will be met by the taxation of your willing and loyal subjects.’