Quite intoxicated with happiness Said hurried away home. Here, however, he met with a very bad reception, for Kalum-Bek was very angry with him for being so late. He had been afraid lest he had lost his handsome sign post, and so he raged and scolded like a madman. But Said, who had given a glance into his purse and seen that it was full of pieces of gold, thought to himself that now he had sufficient money to take him home, even without the assistance of the Caliph, which he guessed would take no mean form, and so he gave back Kalum-Bek word for word and told him plainly that he would remain with him no longer.
“You rascally vagabond,” said Kalum-Bek, “where will you obtain a dinner or a night’s lodging if I withdraw my protection from you?” “That is no concern of yours,” answered Said defiantly. “Good-bye to you, for you will see me no more.”
So saying, he ran off, whilst Kalum-Bek stared after him, dumb with surprise. The next morning, when he had had time to consider matters, he sent his porters out to spy out news of his assistant, and after some time one of them returned with the news that he had seen Said come out of a mosque and enter a caravanserai. He was wearing a handsome dress, a dagger and sword and a magnificent turban.
When Kalum-Bek heard this he said: “He must have robbed me and dressed himself up on my money. Oh! what an unfortunate man I am.”
He hastened to the chief of the police, and as it was known that he was a relative of Messour, the Chamberlain, he had no difficulty in getting an order for Said’s arrest.
Said was calmly sitting outside a caravanserai conversing with a merchant whom he had met there, about the journey to Balsora, his native town, when suddenly several men fell upon him and bound his hands behind him, in spite of his resistance.
He asked by what right they used such violence and they replied that it was in the name of the law and by the instigation of his master, Kalum-Bek. And Kalum-Bek himself, appearing at that moment, mocked and reviled Said and, plunging his hand into the young man’s pocket, drew forth, to the surprise of the surrounding people, a large purse full of gold.
“Do you see what he has stolen from me?” he yelled in triumph. And the bystanders looked at Said in disgust. “So young, so handsome, and yet so wicked,” they said. “To prison with him that he may be flogged.”
So they dragged him away to prison, followed by a crowd of people calling out, “Do you see the handsome shop-assistant from the Bazaar? He robbed his master of two hundred gold pieces and then ran away.”
Brought before the chief of the police, Said would have defended himself; but the officer would not allow him to speak and only listened to Kalum-Bek, who declared that the money and purse found upon Said belonged to him. The judge therefore ordered the money to be given to Kalum-Bek, but it did not gain him possession of the handsome young assistant, who was worth at least a thousand gold pieces to him.