A robbery of stuffs had been committed in the city and as it was
a great matter I was cited,[FN#102] I and my fellows:
they[FN#103] pressed hard upon us: but we obtained of them some
days' grace and dispersed in search of the stolen goods. As for
me, I sallied forth with five men and went round about the city
that day; and on the morrow we fared forth into the suburbs. When
we found ourselves a parasang or two parasangs away from the
city, we waxed athirst; and presently we came to a garden. There
I went in alone and going up to the waterwheel,[FN#104] entered
it and drank and made the Wuzu-ablution and prayed. Presently, up
came the keeper of the garden and said to me, "Woe to thee! Who
brought thee to this waterwheel?" and he smote me and squeezed my
ribs[FN#105] till I was like to die. Then he bound me with one of
his bulls and made me work the waterwheel, flogging me as I
walked round with a cattle-whip[FN#106] he had with him, till my
heart was a-fire; after which he loosed me and I went out,
knowing not the way. Now when I came forth, I fainted: so I sat
down till my trouble subsided; then I made for my comrades and
said to them, "'I have found money and malefactor, and I
affrighted him not neither troubled him, lest he should flee; but
now, come, let us go to him, so we may contrive to lay hold upon
him." Then I took them and we repaired to the keeper of the
garden, who had tortured me with tunding, with the intent to make
him taste the like of that which he had done with me and lie
against him and cause him eat many a stick. So we rushed to the
waterwheel and seized the keeper. Now there was with him a youth
and, as we were pinioning the gardener, he said, "By Allah, I was
not with him and indeed 'tis six months since I entered this
city, nor did I set eyes on the stuffs until they were brought