Laughing at the Khoja's folly, each man untied his own horse as quickly as possible, and took it away.
Then the Khoja knew that the one left was his own.
He at once proceeded to mount, but putting his right foot into the stirrup, he came round with his face to the tail.
"What makes you get up backwards, Khoja?" said his friends.
"It is not I who am in the wrong," said the Khoja, "but the horse that is left-handed."
Tale 42.—The Khoja on the Bey's Horse.
On a certain occasion Khoja Nasr-ed-Deen went to see the Bey, and the Bey invited him to go out hunting.
The Khoja agreed, but when they were about to start he found that he had been mounted on a horse which would not move out of a snail's pace. He said nothing, however, for it is not well to be too quick in seeing affronts.
By and by it began to rain heavily. The Bey and the rest of the party galloped off with all speed towards shelter, and the Khoja was left in the lurch.