ed woman entered the house and cried aloud, and said:
"Save me from my cruel enemy, my own husband. He cut off my nose and I
had done nothing." And her servants heard her cries and all arose in
excitement. Her husband too awoke. Then her father came and saw that
her nose was cut off, and in his anger he had his son-in-law arrested.

And the poor man did not know what to do. Even when he was being bound,
he remained silent and said nothing. Then they all woke up and heard
the story, but the thief who knew the whole truth, ran away. And when
day came, the merchant's son was haled before the king by his
father-in-law. And Fortune went there without her nose, and the king
heard the whole story and condemned the merchant's son to death for
mistreating his wife.

So the innocent, bewildered man was led to the place of execution and
the drums were beaten. Just then the thief came up and said to the
king's men: "Why do you kill this man without any good reason? I know
how the whole thing happened. Take me to the king, and I will tell all."

So all the king's men took him to the king. And the thief told the king
all the adventures of the night, and said: "Your Majesty, if you cannot
trust my word, you may find the nose at this moment between the teeth
of the dead body."

Then the king sent men to investigate, and when he found it was true,
he released the merchant's son from the punishment of death. As for
wretched Fortune, he cut off her ears, too, and banished her from the
country. And he took from her father, the merchant, all his money, and
made the thief the chief of police. He was pleased with him.

O Prince, this shows how cruel and false women are by nature.

As he spoke these words, the parrot changed into a god, for the curse
was fulfilled, and went to heaven like a god. And the thrush suddenly
became a goddess, for her curse was at an end, and flew up likewise to
heaven. So their dispute was never settled at that court.

When the goblin had told this story, he asked the king: "O King, tell
me. Are men bad, or women? If you know and do not tell, your head will
fly to pieces." And when the king heard these words of the goblin on
his shoulder, he said to that magic goblin: "O goblin! Here and there,
now and then, there is an occasional bad man like that. But women are
usually bad. We hear about many of them."

Then the goblin disappeared from the king's shoulder as before. And the
king tried again to catch him.