"He is half naked, clad in skins, with a sword and a knife in
his girdle, and with him are a company of the same fashion." So
I took my sword and going out to see who these were, found them
as the boy had reported and said to them, "What is your
business?" "We are thieves," answered they, "and have made
great purchase to-night and appointed it to thy use, that thou
mayst pay therewith the debts that oppress thee and free
thyself from thy distress." "Where is it?" asked I; and they
brought me a great chest, full of vessels of gold and silver;
which when I saw, I rejoiced and said in myself, "It were
ungenerous to let them go away empty-handed."
So I took the hundred thousand dinars I had by me and gave it
to them, thanking them; and they took it and went their way,
under cover of the night. But, on the morrow, when I examined
the contents of the chest, I found them gilded brass and
pewter, worth five hundred dirhems at the most; and this was
grievous to me, for I had lost what money I had, and trouble
was added to my trouble.'
Then rose the chief of the police of Old Cairo and said, 'O our
lord the Sultan, the most remarkable thing that befell me,
during my term of office, was on this wise:
Story of the Chief of the Old Cairo Police
I once had ten thieves hanged, each on his own gibbet, and set
guards to watch them and hinder the folk from taking them down.
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