Thousand & One Nights 129th Night: The Baghdad Young Man & Zubaida's Maid

The girls interceded with the maid, "Our lady, this man does not know your worth. Forgive him for our sake." 
"No," said she, "he is mad. I must punish him.
"Our lady," said the girls, "for God's sake don't blame for his inadvertance. See his plight in the chest. And then ten days of hiding. Have mercy upon him."
She yelled. She cursed. And she went away. And they followed her.

She was absent for ten days. A maid came with food and drink, and she repeated that her mistress was not feeling well because of the not cleaning after eating ragout spiced with cumin. After ten days the maid announced that her mistress is going to bath and she was about to come. And she came, and repeated the same question, "Couldn't you be  patient for one minute? I will not make peace with you until I punish you for not coming clean. Then she cried out to the girls, "Come, Bound him!". The girls surrounded him, bound his hands, and she took out a sharp blade, and coming upto him, cut off his two thumbs. He fell into a swoon. She sprinkled the wounds with powder, and a store of drugs to stop the flow of blood. When the flow of blood stopped the maids came and gave him wine to drink. The young man opened his eyes and said to her, "I pledge to you that I will never again eat ragout spiced with cumin without washing my hands, and will always wash my hands one hundred and twenty times after having the dish." The lady replied, "Bravo" and was pleased.
This was the reason why the young man insisted on washing one hundred and twenty times after taking ragout spiced with cumin.

Morning overtook and Shahrazad lapsed into silence.

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