Page:Folk-lore of the Holy Land.djvu/191

realm is in a better position than you to show kindness to his fellowmen! Yet you show nothing but cruelty! You are no longer my wazìr, and your wealth shall be confiscated. But this goatherd—who begged better bread than he himself could afford to eat, for the greediest and most ill-mannered guests that ever came to man’s house, and who sacrificed his whole substance rather than disappoint them—he shall be my friend and sit beside me.” Thus was kindness rewarded, and churlishness dishonoured.

There once lived in Jerusalem twin brothers who, even after they were grown up, lived and worked together, sharing the produce of their fields. One night after threshing their corn and dividing it, as was their custom, into two equal heaps, they slept out on the threshing-floor to prevent theft. In the night one of them awoke and thought to himself: “My brother is a married man with children to look after, whereas I—praise to Allah—am single. It is not right that I should receive a share equal to his from the produce of our toil.”

So thinking he rose, and noiselessly took seven measures from his heap and put them on his brother’s; then went back to sleep. A short while afterwards his brother woke and, as he lay blinking at the stars, said within himself, “I, by the blessing of the Highest, have a good wife and four lovely children. I know joys to which my brother is a stranger. It is not right that I should receive