- Greed runs in vain towards the mirage, (though) reason says, "Look carefully: it is not water."
- حرس تازد بیهده سوی سراب ** عقل گوید نیک بین کان نیست آب
- Greed was predominant (in them), and gold had become (dear to them) as their souls: at that moment the cry of reason was unheard.
- حرص غالب بود و زر چون جان شده ** نعرهی عقل آن زمان پنهان شده
- Greed and its clamours had become hundredfold; wisdom and its suggestions had vanished, 2060
- گشته صدتو حرص و غوغاهای او ** گشته پنهان حکمت و ایمای او
- To the end that he (the greedy man) may fall into the pit of delusion, and then hearken to the reproaches of Wisdom.
- تا که در چاه غرور اندر فتد ** آنگه از حکمت ملامت بشنود
- When his wind (idle self-conceit) is broken by imprisonment in the trap,the rebuking soul gets the upper hand over him.
- چون ز بند دام باد او شکست ** نفس لوامه برو یابید دست
- Until his head comes against the wall of affliction, his deaf ear will not listen to the counsel of his heart.
- تا به دیوار بلا ناید سرش ** نشنود پند دل آن گوش کرش
- Greed for walnut-cake and sugar makes the ears of children deaf to admonitions;
- کودکان را حرص گوزینه و شکر ** از نصیحتها کند دو گوش کر
- (Only) when the pain of his abscess begins do his (the child's) ears become open to good advice. 2065
- چونک دردت دنبلش آغاز شد ** در نصیحت هر دو گوشش باز شد
- Then the party (of searchers), with cupidity and a hundred kinds of vain desire, opened the chamber.
- حجره را با حرص و صدگونه هوس ** باز کردند آن زمان آن چند کس
- They swarmed in through the doorway, jostling each other, like vermin (falling) on fetid buttermilk.
- اندر افتادند از در ز ازدحام ** همچو اندر دوغ گندیده هوام