Thousand & One Nights: Six: Three Brothers

O happy king, here is the story of third old man:

Demon, let me introduce these two dogs, my brothers. When our father died, we were three brothers; and the father left us three thousand dinars. we divided them equally among ourselves and each of us opened a shop and became a shopkeeper. Soon my older brother, one of these very dogs went and sold the merchandise for thousand dinars, and bought some other merchandise and prepared himself for his trading journey, and left us. A full year went by.  As I sat in my shop, a beggar stopped by to beg.  When I refused him he tearfully asked, "Don't you recognise me?" I closely looked at him.  It was my brother. I embraced him and took him into the shop. He related me about his plight. The money is gone and he is ruined. I took him to the public bath; clothed him in one of my robes; took him home.  I examined my books to check my balance. I had made one thousand dinars; and my networth is two thousand dinars. I divided it between ourselves; with one thousand dinars he opened a new shop.

Soon afterwards, my second brother,
this other dog, went and sold his merchandise, collected his money, embarked on a trading trip. I tried to dissuade him, but he did not listen to me.  He bought merchandise and joined a group of travelers, and was gone for a full year. Then he came back, just like his older brother.  I said to him, "Brother, didn't I advise you not to go?" He replied tearfully, "Brother, it was foreordained. Now I am poor and penniless, without a shirt on my top. " Demon! I took him to a public bath, clothed him in my new robes, and took him back to shop.  After we had some food, I said to him, "Brother, I shall do my business accounts, calculate my networth, and find out the profit, and divide it between you and myself." On examination I found a profit of two thousand dinars.  Then I divided the money, giving him a thousand dinars, and keeping a thousand for myself. With that money he opened a shop, and three of us stayed together for a while.  Then my two brothers asked me to go on a trading journey with them, but I refused, saying, "What did you gain from your ventures that I can gain?"

They dropped the matter, and for six years we worked in our stores, buying and selling. Yet every year they reminded me of trading journey, but I refused, until I finally gave in. I said, "Brothers, I am ready to go with you.  How much money do you have?" I found that they had none. Eaten, drunken and slept with women, they had squandered everything. But I did not reproach them. I took a look at my inventory; gathered all; and sold everything. It brought me six thousand dinars; then I divided the money into two parts; and said to my brothers, "The sum of three thousand dinars is for you and myself to use on our trading journey. The other three thousand I shall bury in the ground, in case what happened to you happens to me, so that when we  return, we will find three thousand dinars to reopen our shops." They replied together, "An excellent idea!" 

Then, demon, I divided my money, and buried the three thousand dinars.  Of the remaining three, I gave each of my brothers a thousand and 
kept a thousand for myself.  After I closed my shop, we bought merchandise and rented a large seafaring boat, and after loading it with our goods and provisions, sailed day and night, for a month.

It was morning, and Shahrazad lapsed into silence. Then she  said O, my king, and my sister Dinarzad, the remaining portion of the story I will tell you in the night. Today I have to receive some rich merchants from faraway place, arrange some beautiful slave girls to accompany them wherever they go , eat and sleep.

Notes:-

1. Three brothers jumping into the bandwagon of shopkeepers shows that it was a period of economic boom, and there is a possibility that persons not well learned and well trained in any line of occupation end up in trading. Economic opportunities were abundant; their father had left a legacy of three thousand dinars. The younger brother had aptitude and acumen to be a successful merchants. Above all he recognised the the need of capital.

2. Since bankers and banking were not originated money, gold and other valuables were buried for safety.




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