t more expedient to go to the
bath, which he had not frequented for some time. As he was undressing,
one of his acquaintances told him that his slippers made him the
laughing-stock of the whole city, and that he ought to provide himself
with a new pair. "I have been thinking about it," he answered; "however,
they are not so very much worn but they will serve some time longer."
While he was washing himself, the kazi of Baghdad came also to bathe.
Abu Kasim, coming out before the judge, took up his clothes but could
not find his slippers--a new pair being placed in their room. Our miser,
persuaded, because he wished it, that the friend who had spoken to him
about his old slippers had made him a present, without hesitation put on
these fine ones, and left the bath highly delighted. But when the kazi
had finished bathing, his servants searched in vain for his slippers;
none could be found but a wretched pair, which were at once identified
as those of Abu Kasim. The officers hastened after the supposed thief,
and, bringing him back with the theft on his feet, the kazi, after
exchanging slippers, committed him to prison. There was no escaping from
the claws of justice without money, and, as Abu Kasim was known to be
very rich, he was fined in a considerable sum.

On returning home, our merchant, in a fit of indignation, flung his
slippers into the Tigris, that ran beneath his window. Some days after
they were dragged out in a fisherman's net that came up more heavy than
usual. The nails with which the soles were thickly studded had torn the
meshes of the net, and the fisherman, exasperated against the miserly
Abu Kasim and his slippers--for they were known to everyone--determined
to throw them into his house through the window he had left open. The
slippers, thrown with great force, reached the jars of rose-water, and
smashed them in pieces, to the intense consternation of the owner.
"Cursed slippers!" cried he, tearing his beard, "you shall cause me no
farther mischief!" So saying, he took a spade and began to dig a hole in
his garden to bury them. One of his neighbours, who had long borne him
ill-will, perceiving him busied in digging the ground, ran at once to
inform the governor that Abu Kasim had discovered some hidden treasure
in his garden. Nothing more was needful to rouse the cupidity of the
commandant. In vain did our miser protest that he had found no treasure;
and that he only meant to bury his old slippers. The go