Thousand & One Nights:165th Night: The Barber Tells His Story -15

My brother put the glass in a bag and tied it to his waist. 
He disguised himself as a Persian, and hid a sword under his clothes.  When he saw the old woman, he told her with a Persian accent, "Old lady, I am a stranger here.  Do you have a pair of scales, large enough to weigh five hundred dinars?  I will give you some of it for your troubles."

The old woman replied, "O Persian, my son is a money changer, and he has all kinds of scales.  Come with me before he goes out to his shop, and he will weigh your gold."

She led him until she came to the house, and when she knocked at the door, the young lady herself came out and opened the door.  The old woman smiled in her face and said, "I have brought you a fat piece of meat today." 

The young lady taking my brother by hand, led him into the house and sat with him for a while.  Then she said to him, "Wait until I come back." She rose and went away.

As soon as she left, the black slave came in, with a bare sword in his hand, and said, "Get up, cursed man!"  My brother sprang behind the slave and, drawing the sword that was hidden under the clothes, struck him and made his head fly away from his body.  Then he dragged him by heels, cried out to the cellar, "Where is the salt woman?"  The maid came with the dish of salt, and seeing my brother with the sword in his hand, turned to run away, but he caught up with her and struck off her head.

He called out the cellar woman.  The old woman came in.  My brother looked at her, and said, "Do you recognise me? You, wicked old woman?"

She replied, "No, my lord."  
He said, "I am the one in whose house you prayed and whom you lured here." 

She said, "Spare me." But he paid no attention to her and struck her with the sword, cutting her in four.

Then he went in search of the young lady, and when she saw him, she lost her mind and asked for mercy.  He promised to spare her. 

"How did you come to be with this black slave?' he asked her.
"I.was a slave to a merchant.  The old woman came to visit me. We became friends.  One day she said to me, "We have at our house today a wedding, the like of which was never seen, and I would like you to be there." I agreed.

On the day of wedding, putting on my clothes and jewellery and taking with me a purse with a hundred dinars, I followed her until she brought me to this house.  As soon as I went in, this black slave seized me, and I have been in this situation for three years.

My brother asked, "Did the  black slave keep any money or possessions in this house?"

She said, "Plenty!  If you can carry it away, do so."

She took my brother to the chests used to store the money.  "Leave me here and go and bring men to carry them." My brother went out to call men to carry the money.

When he returned, she was gone.
And she took almost all of the money, leaving very little. She tricked him intelligently.  Whatever money and the clothes left, he took and went away and spent the night happily.

But in the morning, he was taken into custody by the police.  They tied his hand behind his back and carried him off.

But morning overtook and Shahrazad lapsed into silence.

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