The guest said, ‘In this road that I came, I arrived at night at a certain village and alighted at the house of an acquaintance, and after supper was over and we had done talking, they spread a garment for me to sleep on, and I put on it a pillow, but I did not go to sleep. My host went to his wife, and there being no other screen between me and them than a mat, I over­heard their conversation, and what they said on both sides from first to last reached my ears. The man said, ‘O wife! I wish to invite a party of the heads of the village to-morrow, and seat them in the presence of this my respected guest, who is a present to us from the invisible world, and prepare an entertainment for them suitable to my position.’ The wife rejoined, ‘I am astonished, that when thou hast not sufficient in the house for the wants of thy family, and hast not the means of procuring a diram* to purchase greens and salt, thou shouldst still, with such powerful resources and ample means, entertain the notion of receiving guests! Well, at least, to-day that thou hast the power to lay up, make a store for the morrow, and leave something behind thee for thy wife and children, that after thy decease, they may not be dependant on any one.’ The husband replied,

If the power of doing a kindness and the ability to benefit others be attainable, we must not shrink from it, since, in fact, that will be a store for the next world; and whoever lays up a store for himself in this world will, in the next, be punished with the loss of his soul, for to amass and hoard up wealth is unblest, and its consequences disastrous, as was the case with that Wolf.’ The wife asked, ‘How was that?’