Next morn he donned his crown and held an audience,
Then called to him Lambak, the water-carrier,
Who came before him with enfolded arms.
They brought withal and quickly Baráhám,
That curst, malicious Jew. When he arrived
They made him sit and called an honest man,
To whom the Sháh said: “Take some baggage-beasts
And, acting with the utmost honesty,
Go to the house of Baráhám forthwith,
And look thou bring what thou find'st hoarded there.”
That honest man went to the Jew's abode.
The house was all brocade, dínárs, and raiment,
All carpetings, and draperies, and hoards.
There was a caravanserai attached,
And no room too on earth for all the goods—
Gold, silver, every gem, and, on the top
Of every bag, a lofty diadem.
The archmage's reckoning failed. He called for camels,
A thousand from the desert of Jahram,

And packed the baggage but much still remained.*

That good man drove apace the caravans,
And, when the bells resounded from the court-gate,
Went and informed the Sháh: “As many gems
Are here as in thy treasury, yet are left
Two hundred ass-loads!”

Thought the Sháh, amazed:—

“The Jew hath greatly toiled, but to what profit
Since food hath failed him?”

Then the Sháh, the world-lord,

Bestowed a hundred camel-loads of gold,
Of drachms, of carpets, and things great and small
Upon the water-carrier. Lambak
Departed with his treasures. Then the Sháh
Called Baráhám and said to him: “O thou
Consorting in thy meanness with the dust!
Dost tell me that thy prophet was long-lived,
And yet bewail life's superfluities?*

A horseman came and quoted me this saw,
Out of the sayings of the past, which saith:—
‘Hath will enjoy and Hath not withereth.’
So now withdraw thy grasping hand and watch
Henceforth the enjoyment of the water-carrier.”
Then to that vile Jew of the synagogue
He spake at large of droppings, handkerchief
Gold-woven, and tiles, bestowed upon the knave
Four drachms, and said: “Take this as capital;
No more befitteth thee. To mendicants
Thy wealth, to thee thy head.”

He gave the poor

All that there was. The Jew departed wailing.
The Sháh gave up the house to plundering;
'Twas well that other folk should have their fling.