ife: "Get up and light a candle, and I will go
and see what is the matter." "You had much better stay where you are,"
advised his wife. But the Khoja, without heeding her words, put the
counterpane on his shoulders and went out. A fellow, on perceiving him,
immediately snatched the counterpane from off the Khoja's shoulders and
ran away. Shivering with cold, the Khoja returned into the house, and
when his wife asked him the cause of the noise, he said: "It was on
account of our counterpane; when they got that, the noise ceased at
once."

But in the following story we have a very old acquaintance in a new
dress: One day the Khoja's wife, in order to plague him, served up some
exceedingly hot broth, and, forgetting what she had done, put a spoonful
of it in her mouth, which so scalded her that the tears came into her
eyes. "O wife," said the Khoja, "what is the matter with you--is the
broth hot?" "Dear Efendi," said she, "my mother, who is now dead, loved
broth very much; I thought of that, and wept on her account." The Khoja,
thinking that what she said was truth, took a spoonful of the broth,
and, it burning his mouth, he began to bellow. "What is the matter with
you?" said his wife. "Why do you cry?" Quoth the Khoja: "You cry because
your mother is gone, but I cry because her daughter is here."[27]

[27] This is how the same story is told in our oldest English
jest-book, entitled _A Hundred Mery Talys_ (1525): A
certain merchant and a courtier being upon a time at
dinner, having a hot custard, the courtier, being
somewhat homely of manner, took part of it and put it in
his mouth, which was so hot that it made him shed tears.
The merchant, looking on him, thought that he had been
weeping, and asked him why he wept. This courtier, not
willing it to be known that he had brent his mouth with
the hot custard, answered and said, "Sir," quod he, "I
had a brother which did a certain offence, wherefore he
was hanged." The merchant thought the courtier had said
true, and anon, after the merchant was disposed to eat
of the custard, and put a spoonful of it into his mouth,
and brent his mouth also, that his eyes watered. This
courtier, that perceiving, spake to the merchant; and
said, "Sir," quod he, "why do ye weep now?" The merchant
perceived how he had been deceived, and said, "Marry,"