this I covered my shame, and no more, and abode awhile thus: then
said I in myself, "The husbands of these women will presently
gather together upon me and I shall be disgraced." So I went out
by another door of the lodging-house, and young and old crowded
about me, running after me and crying, "A madman! A
madman![FN#58] till I came to my house and knocked at the door;
whereupon out came my wife and seeing me naked, tall, bare of
head, cried out and ran in again, saying, "This is a maniac, a
Satan!" But, when my family and spouse knew me, they rejoiced and
said to me, "What aileth thee?" I told them that thieves had
taken my clothes and stripped me and had been like to slay me;
and when I assured them that the rogues would have slaughtered
me, they praised Allah Almighty and gave me joy of my safety. So
consider the craft this woman practised upon me, and I pretending
to cleverness and wiliness. Those present marvelled at this story
and at the doings of women; then came forward a fourth constable
and said, "Now that which hath betided me of strange adventures
is yet stranger than this, and 'twas after the following
fashion."




The Fourth Constable's History.



We were sleeping one night on the terrace-roof, when a woman made
her way through the darkness into the house and, gathering into a
bundle all that was therein, took it up that she might go away