Abunu The Wise

Long, long ago, when many
of the Arab people lived in
tents, as some of them still do,
there lived a king whose name
was Ahmed. King Ahmed had
a wonderful palace built of
gold and marble. It stood on
the edge of a lake, or oasis,
that was called Hamman. In
the village near the palace,
where the king's servants lived,
there was a wise and clever
young man whose name was
Abunu. Abunu was a kind
man and he liked to help people
whenever he could, In fact,
there was a saying in the village,
which went something like this,
"If you do not know what to
do, go and ask young Abunu."

Once a week, on every
Wednesday, when the market-
HE place was closed and all the
people had stopped working,
King Ahmed sat on his throne
in the courtyard of the palace.
On that day, all the people who
had complaints or thought they
had been badly treated in" -the
market, would come to the
king and tell him their troubles.
Then the king would decide
how best that problem could
be settled. Sometimes, even
the king was not sure what he
should do and that was when
he called for Abunu the Wise
to advise him.

One Wednesday, when the
king was sitting on his throne
and Abunu the Wise was sitting
next to the Prime Minister,
listening to the complaints, a
:edy merchant appeared



pushed his way to the front of
the queue, dragging a poor
man behind him. The merchant
bowed very low to the king
and said, "Your most Imperial
Majesty, youc Right Royal Sire,
this little man has stolen some-
thing from me. He has taken
away one of the most treasured
things in my life."

"What did he steal?" asked
the king, expecting to hear that
all the man's gold and riches
had disappeared.

"This man has stolen the
smell of my dinner," replied
the merchant.

"The smell of your dinner!"
exclaimed the king. "By the
great desert sands, how did he
manage to do that?" The
king turned to the beggar and
asked, "Is this true? Did you
really steal the smfill of this
merchant's dinner and if so
how did you do it?"

The beggar bowed low to the
ground and started to tell his
sad story to the king.

"Your Highness, I was wan-
dering through the desert on
my way to the oasis of Hamman,
when I happened to see this *
merchant's tent. The merchant
was waiting for his evening
meal to be served and as I
sniffed the night air a wonderful



smel! of roast beef and rich
gravy came to me. I stood
near the tent and stayed there
thinking of all that lovely food.
For you see, your Majesty, it is
not often that I get the chance
to smell such a beautiful dinner
like that, let alone eat one and
the smell was better than nothing
at all. However, when the
rich merchant had finished his
dinner he came out of the tent
and stood in front of its door-
way, so 1 called out to him,
'Thank you, great merchant,
thank you very much for letting
me share the smell of your
dinner.* But the merchant was
not very pleased and he ordered
his servants to seize me and
tie me to the nearest camel.
Then he dragged me all the




ground as the beggar had done,
"my cook had prepared a lovely
piece of beef for me and roasted
it in just the way that I like it
done. I was looking forward
to this delicious dinner, but
way here. So you see, your alas, when I came to eat I could
Majesty, here I am." taste the food, but the smell of

The beggar stepped back and it had completely disappeared-
the king turned to the merchant I was very angry, because I am
and said, "Now let me hear very fond of the smell of roast
your side of the story." beef and rich gravy. 'What has

"Your Highness," said the happened to the smell of my
merchant bowing low to the roast beef?' I asked my cook,
36



but he could not tell me, so
1 stood outside the doorway of
my tent, trying to think of the
ways in which the smell could
have disappeared. It was then,
your Highness, that 'this beggar
man spoke to me and so I knew
that it was he who had stolen it."

The king thought about this
difficult problem for quite a
few minutes before he answered.
' T I realise," he said, "that the
beggar man did smell the roast
beef and the beggar himself
admits it, but the dinner belon-
ged to the merchant and there-
fore the smell did also. I decide
that the beggar is guilty of this
crime and as a punishment he
must pay the merchant the sum
of twelve silver pennies."

The greedy merchant was
delighted and he could not wait
to get his hands on the money,
but the poor beggar felt very
sad*. He stepped forward and
said, "Your Highness, I cannot
possibly pay the fine because 1
have not got twelve silver pen-
nies to give to this merchant."

While everybody was trying
to solve this problem, Abunu
the Wise, who had been listen-
ing closely to all that had been
said, stepped forward and add-
ressed the king. "Your Majesty,



he said. "May I pay the twelve
silver pennies to the merchant?
It is plain that this poor beggar
has not got the. money."

"Very well," said the king,
who was eager to get the case
over. Turning to the merchant,
he asked him, "Are you ready
to receive the money?"

"Yes," replied the merchant,
greedily rubbing his hands to-
gether. Abunu smiled wisely,
took twelve pennies from his
purse and gave them to the
beggar. He ordered the beggar
to throw the money to the
ground penny by penny. The
poor beggar was amazed and
could not understand why he
had been told to do this, but
he knew that Abunu was a wise
man, so he ..obeyed him.

The beggar took the money
and threw it down on the stone
floor of the courtyard. As each
silver penny struck the stone
and rolled away, it tinkled.
When the last coin had fallen,
Abunu turned to the merchant
and said, "Did you hear the
tinkle of those coins?"

"Yes," said the man, who
was a little puzzled. "I heard
them."

"Well," said Abunu, "the
tinkle of the coins is yours, for



which rightly belongs to you.
This beggar had a smell of your
roast beef, but did not have
any of the dinner, therefore you
will get only the tinkle of the
pennies and none of the money."

"That is fair," agreed the
king. "You are quite right,
Abunu ,the Wise. Let that be
the judgement in^this case."



On hearing this, the poor
beggar went away happy and
pleased at not being fined, while,
the greedy merchant went away
very angry, because he had not
been able to increase his riches.

Abunu the Wise just bowed
to the king and went home,
satisfied that justice had been
done.