Arabian Nights: 285th Night: Ala ed Din & the Wonderful Lamp
The following night Shahrazad said: I have heard, O king of the age, there lived in the city of China a poor tailor who had a son named Ala ed Din. Now this boy had been a scatter-brained scapegrace from his birth. He lacked concentration and he was mischievous. And when he was ten years old his father wished to teach him handicrafts, and being poor could not spend money on him for learning an art or craft or business. So he took him to his own shop to learn his trade of tailoring. But Ala ed Din, being a careless boy and always given to playing with urchins of the street would not stay in the shop a single day. He used to remain in the shop as long as his father was present in the shop, and when his father went out on business or to meet a customer, run off to gardens along with his fellow ragamuffins. Such was his case. He would neither obey his parents nor learn a trade. His father was very sad over his son's misdoings, fell sick and died. But Ala ed Din went on in ...