The Devout Man and the Brazen Beggar

A smooth talker came to a man of heart and said: I'm stuck fast, sunk deep in the mud. A miserable wretch is owed ten silver coins by me, but even a fraction of it weighs on my heart like a mountain. All night my mind is thrown into turmoil by him, all day he trails me like a shadow. With his mind-wrecking words he has scraped my heart raw, like a wound behind the door of my chest. It seems that from the day his mother bore him God gave him nothing but these ten coins to demand. He knows not a single letter from the book of faith, has read nothing but the chapter of the unbending. Never once has the sun risen over the hills without that shameless rogue knocking at my door. I keep wondering which generous soul will free me from that hard-hearted man with a little silver. The old man of blessed nature heard these words and slipped two whole coins into the fellow's sleeve. Gold fell into the storyteller's hands, and he strode off from there beaming like fresh gold. Someone said: Sheikh, don't you know who that was? If he drops dead, no one need shed a tear. A beggar who could saddle a wild lion, who could out-hustle Abu Zaid himself and take his horse and queen. The devout man grew angry: Be quiet. You are no man of words, so keep your ears open instead. If what I believed of him was true, then I have guarded his honor before the people. And if he played the shameless hypocrite, don't imagine he made a fool of me. For I kept my own honor safe from the hands of such a cunning liar. Give silver and gold to good and bad alike: to the good it earns you virtue, from the bad it wards off harm. Blessed is the one who, in the company of the wise, learns the manners of those with heart. If you have reason, judgment, foresight and sense, you will listen to Saadi's counsel with respect. For his talk is mostly of this way of living, not of eyes and curls, earlobes and beauty-spots.