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6
1672-1681

  • And said, ‘O story-teller, in your city who is the greatest expert in this (kind of) deceit and fraud?’
  • [How the Turk boasted and wagered that the tailor would not be able to steal anything from him.]
  • He replied, ‘There is a tailor named Pír-i Shush who beats (all other) folk in light-fingeredness and thievery.’
  • ‘I warrant,’ said he (the Turk), ‘that (even) with a hundred efforts he will not be able to take away a coil of thread in my presence.’
  • Then they told him, ‘Cleverer persons than you have been checkmated by him: do not soar (too high) in your pretensions. 1675
  • Go to, be not so deluded by your intelligence, else you will be lost in his wiles.’
  • The Turk became (still) hotter and made a wager there (and then) that he (the tailor) would not be able to rob (him of anything) either old or new.
  • Those who flattered his hopes made him hotter (than before): immediately he wagered and declared the stakes,
  • Saying, ‘I will pay this Arab horse of mine as a forfeit if he artfully steals my stuff;
  • And if he cannot rob (me) I shall receive a horse from you (as an equivalent) for the first stake.’ 1680
  • Because of his anxiety sleep did not overcome the Turk (all) that night: he was fighting with the phantom of the thief.