The Story of the Chief of the Old Cairo Police.

"I once hanged ten thieves each on his own gibbet, and especially charged the guards to watch them and hinder the folk from taking any one of them down. Next morning when I came to look at them, I found two bodies hanging from one gallows and said to the guards, 'Who did this, and where is the tenth gibbet?' But they denied all knowledge of it, and I was about to beat them till they owned the truth, when they said, 'Know, O Emir, that we fell asleep last night, and when we awoke, we found that some one had stolen one of the bodies, gibbet and all; so we were alarmed and feared thy wrath. But, behold, up came a peasant-fellow driving his ass; whereupon we laid hands on him and killed him and hanged his body upon this gallows, in the stead of the thief who had been stolen.'[FN#404] Now when I heard this, I marvelled and asked them, 'What had he with him?'; and they answered, 'He had a pair of saddle-bags on the ass.' Quoth I, 'What was in them?'; quoth they, 'We know not.' So I said, 'Bring them hither;' and when they brought them to me I bade open them, behold, therein was the body of a murdered man, cut in pieces. Now as soon as I saw this, I marvelled at the case and said in myself, 'Glory to God! The cause of the hanging of this peasant was none other but his crime against this murdered man; and thy Lord is not unjust towards His servants.'"[FN#405] And men also tell the tale of


Footnotes:


[FN#404] This would have passed for a peccadillo in the "good old days." As late as 1840 the Arnaut soldiers used to "pot" any peasant who dared to ride (instead of walking) past their barracks. Life is cheap in hot countries.

[FN#405] Koran, xii. 46 — a passage expounding the doctrine of free will: "He who doth right doth it to the advantage of his own soul; and he who doth evil, doth it against the same; for thy Lord," etc.