o pass away the heat of the day more at their
liberty, and with great composure, while I went to give orders to
my housekeeper and gardener.

Afterwards I returned to them again, and we talked of indifferent
matters till it grew a little cooler; when we returned into the
garden for fresh air, and stayed till sun-set. We then mounted on
horseback, and got to Bagdad by moonlight, two hours after,
followed by one of my slaves.

It happened, I know not by what negligence of my servants, that
we were then out of grain for the horses, and the storehouses
were all shut up; when one of my slaves seeking about the
neighbourhood for some, met with a pot of bran in a shop; bought
the bran, and brought the pot along with him, promising to carry
it back again the next day. The slave emptied the bran, and
dividing it with his hands among the horses, felt a linen cloth
tied up, and very heavy; he brought the cloth to me in the
condition that he found it, and presented it to me, telling me,
that it might perhaps be the cloth he had often heard me talk of
among my friends.

Overjoyed, I said to my two benefactors, "Gentlemen, it has pleased
God that you should not part from me without being fully convinced of
the truth of what I have assured you. There are the other hundred and
ninety pieces of gold which you gave me," continued I, addressing
myself to Saadi; "I know it well by the cloth, which I tied up with my
own hands;" and then I told out the money before them. I ordered the
pot to be brought to me, knew it to be the same; and sent to my wife
to ask if she recognized it, ordering them to say nothing to her of
what had happened. She knew it immediately, and sent me word that it
was the same pot she had exchanged full of bran for the
scouring-earth.

Saadi readily submitted, renounced his incredulity; and said to
Saad, "I yield to you, and acknowledge that money is not always
the means of becoming rich."

When Saadi had spoken, I said to him, "I dare not propose to
return you the three hundred and eighty pieces of gold which it
hath pleased God should be found, to undeceive you as to the
opinion of my honesty. I am persuaded that you did not give them
to me with an intention that I should return them; but as I ought
to be content with what Providence has sent me from other
quarters, and I do not design to make use of them; if you approve
of my proposal, to-morrow I will give them to the poor, that God
may bless us both."