CHAPTER XXIII[ToC]
CONCERNING BRIBES
'Why did you want those four mejîdis?' I inquired severely.
Suleymân shrugged up his shoulders and replied:
'I had to pay the proper fees, since you yourself showed not a sign of doing so, to save our carefully established honour and good name.'
'You don't mean that you gave them to the Caïmmacâm?'
'Allah forbid! Consider, O beloved, my position in this matter. To put it in the form of parables: Suppose a king and his vizier should pay a visit to another king and his vizier. If there were presents to be made, I ask you, would not those intended for the king be offered personally by the king, and those for the vizier by the vizier? It will be obvious to your Honour, upon slight reflection, that if, in our adventure of this morning, a present to the Governor was necessary or desirable, you personally, and no other creature, should have made it.'
'Merciful Allah!' I exclaimed. 'He would have knocked me down.'