Thousand & One Nights: 108th Night

One hundred and eighth night.
Shahrazad began the story of the hunchback. 
The Jewish physician admitted that he was responsible for the death of the hunchback.
"Release the steward and hang the Jew." The police chief ordered.
The hangman seized the Jew and put the rope around his neck, when the tailor made his way through the crowd and said to the hangman, "Stop, this man did not kill him, and none killed him but I." Then turning to the chief he said, "My lord, none killed the hunchback but I. Yesterday I went out to see the sights, and when I returned in the evening, I met the hunchback, who was drunk and singing and playing on the tambourine. I invited him home with me and then went out, bought fried fish for him, and brought it back. Then we sat to eat, and I took a piece of fish and crammed it down his throat, and he choked on a bone and died instantly. My wife and I were frightened, and we carried him to the Jew's house. We knocked at the door, and when the maid came down and opened the door, I said to her, "Go up and tell your master that there are a man and a woman downstairs, with a sick person for him to see," handing her quarter dinar to give to her master. As soon as she went up, I carried the hunchback to the top of the stairs, propped him up, and went down and ran with my wife. When the Jew came down, he stumbled against the hunchback and thought he had killed him." Then the tailor turned to the Jew, and asked, "Isn't this the truth?" The Jew replied, "Yes, this is the truth." Then turning back to the chief, the tailor said, "Release the Jew, and hang me, since I am the one who killed the hunchback." When the chief heard the tailor's words, he marvelled at the adventure of the hunchback, and said, "There is a mystery behind this story, and it should be recorded in the books, even in letters of gold." Then he said to the hangman, "Release the Jew and hang the tailor on his own confession." The hangman released the Jew and placed the tailor under the gallows, saying to the chief, "I am tired of stringing up this man, and releasing that, without any result. Then he put the rope around tailor's neck and threw the other end over the pulley. 

It happened that the hunchback was the favourite clown of the king of China, who could not bear to be without him even for the batting of an eye, so that when the hunchback got drunk and failed to make his appearance that night.....

It was dawn, and Shahrazad stopped the story telling.



 

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