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told the king that they were not words fit for him to hear. The king, however, insisted upon hearing the words.
The vizier, therefore, represented the conversation to be as follows:—"One of the owls had a son and the other a daughter, and the two parent-birds are negotiating a marriage between their children. The former parent said to the latter:—'Then, you will give your daughter to my son, but will you give him fifty ruined villages'? To which the latter parent replied:— 'While our Sultan Mahmud by the grace of the Almighty rules so happily, can there be a dearth of ruined villages? You only asked me for a paltry fifty, I will give you five hundred."
When the Sultan heard this, he was very much grieved at heart. So he at once ordered the rebuilding of all the ruined villages in the realm, and made his subjects happy and prosperous.
