There lived once in Cairo, in the days of the Khalif El Hakim
bi Amrillah, a butcher named Werdan, who dealt in sheep's
flesh; and there came to him every forenoon a lady and gave him
a diner, whose weight was nigh two and a half Egyptian diners,
saying, 'Give me a lamb.' So he took the money and gave her the
lamb, which she delivered to a porter she had with her; and he
put it in his basket and she went away with him to her own
place. This went on for some time, the butcher profiting a
dinar by her every day, till at last he began to be curious
about her and said to himself, 'This woman buys a diner's worth
of meat of me every day, paying ready money, and never misses a
day. Verily, this is a strange thing!' So he took an occasion
of questioning the porter, in her absence, and said to him,
'Whither goest thou every day with yonder woman?' 'I know not
what to make of her,' answered the porter; 'for, every day,
after she hath taken the lamb of thee, she buys fresh and dried
fruits and wax candles and other necessaries of the table, a
dinar's worth, and takes of a certain Nazarene two flagons of
wine, for which she pays him another diner.
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