Now he had a friend, who pretended to quickwittedness and
understanding; so he came up to him privily and said to him, 'Let
me do, so I may put the change on this trickster, for I know him
to be a liar and thou art near upon having to pay the money; but
I will turn suspicion from thee and say to him, "The deposit is
with me and thou erredst in imagining that it was with other than
myself," and so divert him from thee.' 'Do so,' replied the
merchant, 'and rid the folk of their [false] debts.'

So the friend turned to the sharper and said to him, 'O my lord,
O such an one, thou goest under a delusion. The purse is with me,
for it was with me that thou depositedst it, and this elder is
innocent of it.' But the sharper answered him with impatience and
impetuosity, saying, 'Extolled be the perfection of God! As for
the purse that is with thee, O noble and trusty man, I know that
it is in the warrant of God and my heart is at ease concerning
it, for that it is with thee as it were with me; but I began by
demanding that which I deposited with this man, of my knowledge
that he coveteth the folk's good.' At this the friend was
confounded and put to silence and returned not an answer; [and
the] only [result of his interference was that] each of them
[FN#52] paid a thousand dinars.

So the sharper took the two thousand dinars and made off; and
when he was gone, the merchant said to his friend, the
[self-styled] man of wit and intelligence, 'Harkye, such an one!
Thou and I are like unto the hawk and the locust.' 'What was
their case?' asked the other; and the merchant said,