"O Khoja Effendi!" cried the man, "what you say cannot be true, for I can hear your donkey quite distinctly as I stand here."
"What a strange man you must be," said the Effendi. "Is it possible that you believe a donkey rather than me, who am grey-haired and a Khoja?"
Tale 6.—The Khoja's Gown.
One day the Khoja's wife, having washed her husband's gown, hung it out in the garden to dry.
Now in the dusk of the evening the Khoja repaired to his garden, where he saw, as he believed, a thief standing with outstretched arms.
"O you rascal!" he cried, "is it you who steal my fruit? But you shall do so no more."
And having called to his wife for his bow and arrows, the Khoja took aim and pierced his gown through the middle. Then without waiting to see the result he hastened into his house, secured the door with much care, and retired to rest.
When morning dawned, the Khoja went out into the garden, where perceiving that what he had hit was his own gown, he seated himself and returned thanks to the All-merciful Disposer of Events.
"Truly," said he, "I have had a narrow escape. If I had been inside it, I should have been dead long before this!"