reached these merchants in their towns that I was living and
hearty, so they came once more to our village and demanded of the
Governor that I be given up to them. So the rulers sent for and
summoned me, but when the creditors made a claim upon me for six
hundred reals, I said to the Governor, "O my lord, verily these
five fellows were slaves to my sire in bygone-times." Quoth the
ruler, "Were ye then in sooth chattels to his sire?" and said
they to me, "Thou liest!" Upon this I rejoined, "Bare their
bodies; and, if thou find a mark thereupon, they be my father's
serviles, and if thou find no sign then are my words false." So
they examined them and they found upon the rumps of the five,
marks of the branding-iron, and the Governor said, "By Allah, in
good sooth he hath told the truth and you five are the chattels
of his father." Hereupon began dispute and debate between us, nor
could they contrive aught to escape from me until they paid me
three hundred reals in addition to what I had before of them.
When the Sultan heard these words from the Larrikin he fell to
wondering and laughing at what the wight had done and he said,
"By Allah, verily thy deed is the deed of a vagabond who is a
past-master in fraud." Then the third Larrikin spoke and said,
"By Allah, in good sooth my story is more marvellous and wondrous
than the tales of this twain, for that none (methinketh) save I
could have done aught of the kind." The King asked him, "And what
may be thy story?" so he began to relate




The Tale of the Third Larrikin.