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‘This is the reward of goodness, O Rosy-cheeks,’ went in to Er Reshid and said to him, ‘O Commander of the Faithful, thy master the fisherman is with the chief eunuch, dunning him for a hundred dinars.’ Quoth the Khalif, ‘Bring him to me, O Jaafer.’ And the vizier answered, ‘I hear and obey.’
So he went out to the fisherman and said to him, ‘O Khelif, thine apprentice the trumpeter bids thee to him.’ So he followed Jaafer into the presence-chamber, where he saw the Khalif seated, with a canopy over his head. When he entered, Er Reshid wrote three scrolls and laid them before him, and the fisherman said to him, ‘[It would seem] thou hast given up the trumpeting trade and turned astrologer.’ Quoth the Khalif to him, ‘Take a scroll.’
Now in one he had written, ‘Let him be given a dinar,’ and in another, ‘A hundred dinars,’ and in the third, ‘Let him be given a hundred blows with a whip.’ So Khelif put out his hand and as fate would have it, it lighted on the scroll wherein was written, ‘Let him receive a hundred lashes,’ and kings, whenas they ordain aught, go not back therefrom. So they threw him down and gave him a hundred lashes, whilst he roared for succour, but none succoured him, and said, ‘By Allah, this is a fine thing, O trumpeter! I teach thee fishing and thou turnest astrologer and drawest me an unlucky lot!’
When the Khalif heard his speech, he swooned away for laughter and said, ‘O Khelif, no harm shall betide thee: fear not. Give him a hundred dinars.’ So they gave him a hundred dinars, and he went out and fared on, till he came to the trunk-market, where he found the folk assembled in a ring about a broker, who was crying out and saying, ‘At a hundred dinars, less one! A locked chest!’
So Khelif pushed through the crowd and said to the
