“Neighbor, I am very sorry, but my boy started on the donkey an hour ago for Scutari. By this time he is gaily trotting over the hills, far from the sacred precincts of Stamboul.”
Just as Ismail finished speaking a loud bray was heard from the stable, which was under the same roof as the house. The neighbor exclaimed:
“How now, friend Ismail? I heard your donkey bray.”
Ismail protested that the neighbor’s ear had been deceived, and that the noise was not a donkey’s bray. But the donkey, who was supposed to be trotting toward Scutari, brayed again, brayed twice, and loudly, so the neighbor cried,
“Surely that is your donkey, Ismail. Allah be praised, I can now borrow him.” But Ismail replied angrily,
“Which do you believe is lying, the donkey or I?”
The neighbor could not set up the word of a donkey against that of Ismail Hassan, so he had to depart on foot.
“Who Is Lying, the Donkey or I?”