Story No. 10

A poor dervish woman was pregnant, near the end of her term, and this dervish had never had a child in all his life. He said: if the mighty and glorious God gives me a son, I will give everything I own to the poor, except for this robe I wear. As it happened, she gave birth to a son, and he laid out a table for the poor, as he had vowed. Some years later, returning from a journey to Syria, I passed through my friend's neighborhood and asked how he was faring. They told me he was locked in the police prison. I asked the reason. Someone said: his son drank wine, picked a drunken fight, spilled a man's blood, and then fled. Because of him, the father now has a chain around his neck and heavy irons on his feet. I said: this is the very disaster he begged from mighty and glorious God! You clear-headed man, if pregnant women gave birth to snakes at the hour of delivery, in the eyes of the wise that would be better than bringing crooked, wayward children into the world.