heavily and violently, so that they came nigh to break the lock.
Then one of them entered and was absent a long while, but found
nought; so he returned to his comrades and said to them,"This is
the door of a passage, leading to such a street; and indeed she
laughed at you and left you and went away."When they heard his
words, they returned to the Amir and acquainted him with the
case, whereby he knew that the old woman was a crafty trickstress
and that she had laughed at them and cozened them and put a cheat
on them, to save herself. Consider, then, the cunning of this
woman and that which she contrived of wiles, for all her lack of
foresight in presenting herself [a second time] to the draper and
not apprehending that his conduct was but a trick; yet, when she
found herself in danger, she straightway devised a shift for her
deliverance.'

When the company heard the seventh officer's story, they were
moved to exceeding mirth, and El Melik ez Zahir Bibers rejoiced
in that which he heard and said, 'By Allah, there betide things
in this world, from which kings are shut out, by reason of their
exalted station!" Then came forward another man from amongst the
company and said, 'There hath reached me from one of my friends
another story bearing on the malice of women and their craft, and
it is rarer and more extraordinary and more diverting than all
that hath been told to you."

Quoth the company, 'Tell us thy story and expound it unto us, so
we may see that which it hath of extraordinary.' And he said
'Know, then, that