The Cadi’s answer to the questions of the Sufi, and how he adduced the Story of the Turk and the Tailor as a parable.

1651 - Haven’t you heard that a certain sugar-lipped used to tell at nightfall of the perfidy of tailors,

1652 - Setting forth to the people old stories concerning the thievery of that class ?

1653 - To that one and this one he would relate tales of their snatching pieces of cloth while cutting it,

1654 - And during the night-talk he would read aloud a book on tailors, when a throng had gathered round him.

1655 - Since he found eager listeners among those who came, all parts of him had become the story.

How the Turk boasted and wagered that the tailor would not be able to steal anything from him.

1673 - He replied, ‘There is a tailor named Pír-i Shush who beats folk in light-fingeredness and thievery.’

1674 - ‘I warrant,’ said he, ‘that with a hundred efforts he will not be able to take away a coil of thread in my presence.’

1675 - Then they told him, ‘Cleverer persons than you have been checkmated by him: do not soar in your pretensions.

1676 - Go to, be not so deluded by your intelligence, else you will be lost in his wiles.’

1677 - The Turk became hotter and made a wager there that he would not be able to rob either old or new.

1678 - Those who flattered his hopes made him hotter: immediately he wagered and declared the stakes,

1679 - Saying, ‘I will pay this Arab horse of mine as a forfeit if he artfully steals my stuff;

1680 - And if he cannot rob I shall receive a horse from you for the first stake.’

1681 - Because of his anxiety sleep did not overcome the Turk that night: he was fighting with the phantom of the thief.

1682 - In the morning he put a piece of satin under his arm, went to the bazaar, and the shop of that cunning rogue.

1683 - Then he saluted him warmly, and the master-tailor sprang up from his seat and opened his lips to bid him welcome.

1684 - He inquired with a cordiality exceeding that of the Turk, so that he planted in his heart affection for him.

1685 - When he heard from him a song like the nightingales, he threw down before him the piece of Stamboul satin,

1686 - Saying, ‘Cut this into a coat for the day of battle: wide below my navel and tight above it,

1687 - Tight above, to show off my body; wide below, so as not to hamper my legs.’

1688 - He replied, ‘O kindly man, I will do a hundred services,’ and in accepting it he laid his hand upon his eye.

1689 - Then he measured and inspected the working surface and, after that, opened his lips in idle chat.

1690 - Of stories about other Amírs and of the bounties and gifts of those persons.

1691 - And about the misers and their economies— he gave a sample for the purpose of laughter.

1692 - In a flash he whipped out a pair of scissors and went on cutting while his lips were full of tales and beguiling talk.

How the tailor told laughable jests, and how the narrow eyes of the Turk were closed by the violence of his laughter, and how the tailor found an opportunity.

1693 - The Turk began to laugh at the stories, and at that moment his narrow eyes closed.

1694 - He filched a shred and put it under his thigh, hidden from all living beings except God.

1695 - God saw it, but He is disposed to cover up; yet when you carry beyond bounds He is a tell-tale.

1696 - From his delight in his anecdotes the Turk’s former boast went out of his head.

1697 - What satin? What boast? What wager ? The Turk is intoxicated with the jokes of the pasha.

1698 - The Turk implored him, crying, ‘For God’s sake go on telling jokes, for they are meat to me.’

1699 - The rascal told such a ridiculous story that he fell on his back in an explosion of laughter.

1700 - He swiftly clapped a shred of satin to the hem of his under garments, while the Turk was paying no attention and greedily sucking in the jests.

1701 - Still, the Turk of Khitá said for the third time, 'Tell me a joke for God's sake !

1702 - He told a story more laughable than on the two previous occasions, and made this Turk entirely his prey.

1703 - His eyes shut, his reason flown, bewildered, the boastful Turk was intoxicated with guffaws.

1704 - Then for the third time he filched a strip from the coat, since the Turk’s laughter gave him ample scope.

1705 - When for the fourth time the Turk of Khitá was demanding a jest from the master-tailor,

1706 - The master took pity on him and put aside artfulness and injustice.

1707 - He said, ‘This infatuated man has a great desire for these, not knowing what a loss and swindle they are.’

1708 - He showered kisses on the master, crying, ‘For God’s sake tell me a story !’

1709 - O you who have become a story and dead to existence, how long will you wish to make trial of stories ?

1710 - No story is more laughable than you: stand on the edge of your own ruinous grave !

1711 - O you who have gone down into the grave of ignorance and doubt, how long will you seek the jests and tales of Time ?

1712 - How long will you listen to the blandishments of this world that leave neither your mind un-deranged nor your spirit ?

1713 - The jests of Time, this mean and petty boon-companion, have robbed of honour a hundred thousand like you.

1714 - This Universal Tailor is ever tearing and stitching the garments of a hundred travellers silly as children.

1715 - If his jests conferred a gift on the orchards, when December came they gave that gift to the winds.

1716 - The old children sit down beside him to beg that he will jest by fortunes good or bad.

How the tailor said to the Turk, “Hey, hold your tongue: if I tell any more funny stories the coat will be tight for you.

1717 - The tailor said, ‘Begone, unmanly fellow ! Woe to you if I make another jest;

1718 - Then, after that, the coat will be tight for you: does anyone practice this on himself ?

1719 - What laughter ? If you had an inkling, instead of laughing you would weep blood.’

Explaining that the idle folk who wish stories are like the Turk, and that the deluding and treacherous World is like the tailor, and that lusts and women are this World’s telling laughable jokes, and that Life resembles the piece of satin placed before this Tailor to be made into a coat of eternity and a garment of piety.

1720 - The Tailor, Worldly Vanity, takes away the satin of your life, bit by bit, with his scissors, the months.

A Story setting forth that patience in bearing worldly affliction is easier than patience in bearing separation from the Beloved.

1758 - A certain woman said to her husband, “Hey, O you who have finished with generosity once and for all,

1759 - Why have you no care for me ? How long shall I dwell in this abode of misery ?”

1760 - The husband replied, “I am doing my best to earn money; though I am destitute, I am moving hand and foot.

1761 - O beloved, it is my duty money and clothes: you get both these from me and they are not insufficient.”

1762 - The wife showed the sleeve of her chemise: the chemise was very coarse and dirty.

1763 - “It is so rough,” said she, “it eats my body: does anyone get a garment of this kind for any one ?”

1764 - He said, “O wife, I will ask you one question. I am a poor man: this is all I know.

1765 - This is rough and coarse and disagreeable, but think, O thoughtful wife !

1766 - Is this rougher and nastier, or divorce ? Is this more odious to you, or separation ?”

1832 - If this moonlight had not been in eclipse, so many philosophers would not have lost the way.

1833 - Through losing their way the acute and intelligent saw the brand of foolishness on their noses.

Ya Ali Madad