I was living in Baghdad during the times of al-Mustansir bi'llah, son of al-Mustazi bi'llah, the Caliph of that time, a prince who loved the poor and needy and kept company with the learned and pious. One day it occurred to him that he was angry with ten persons—highwaymen who robbed on the Caliph's highway—and he ordered the Prefect of Baghdad to bring them into his presence on the anniversary of the Great Festival. So the Prefect set out and, making them his prisoners, embarked with them in a boat. I caught sight of them as they were embarking and said to myself, "These are surely assembled for a marriage feast; I think they are spending their day in that boat eating and drinking, and none shall be a companion of their cups but I myself." So I arose, O fair assembly; and, from the excess of my courtesy and the gravity of my understanding, I embarked with them and entered into conversation with them. They rowed across to the opposite bank, where they landed and there came up the watch and guardians of the peace with chains, which they put round the robbers' necks. They chained me among the rest of them; and, O people, is it not a proof of my courtesy and spareness of speech, that I held my peace and did not choose to speak?

Then they took us away in shackles and next morning carried us all before al-Mustansir bi'llah, Commander of the Faithful, who ordered the executioner to strike the necks of the ten robbers. So the Executioner came forward after they were seated on the leather of blood; then drawing his blade, he struck off one head after another until he had smitten the neck of the tenth; and I alone remained. The Caliph looked at me and asked the Executioner, saying, "What ails you that you have struck off only nine heads?"; and he answered, "Allah forbid that I should behead only nine, when you ordered me to behead ten!" Quoth the Caliph, "It seems to me you have smitten the necks of only nine, and this man before you is the tenth." "By your beneficence!" replied the Executioner, "I have beheaded ten." "Count them!" cried the Caliph and when they counted the heads, lo! there were ten. The Caliph looked at me and said, "What made you keep silence at a time like this and how came you to company with these men of blood? Tell me the cause of all this, for although you are a very old man, surely your wits are weak."

Now when I heard these words from the Caliph I sprang to my feet and replied, "Know, O Prince of the Faithful, that I am the Silent Shaykh and am thus called to distinguish me from my six brothers. I am a man of immense learning whilst, as for the gravity of my understanding, the wiliness of my wits and the spareness of my speech, there is no end of them; and my calling is that of a barber. I went out early in the morning yesterday and saw these men making for a boat; and, thinking they were bound for a marriage feast, I joined them and mixed with them. After a while up came the watch and guardians of the peace, who put chains round their necks and round mine with the rest; but, in the excess of my courtesy, I held my peace and spoke not a word; nor was this anything other than generosity on my part. They brought us into your presence, and you gave an order to smite the necks of the ten; yet did I not make myself known to you and remained silent before the Executioner, purely from my great generosity and courtesy which led me to share with them in their death.

But all my life long have I dealt thus nobly with mankind, and they requite me with the foulest and evillest requital!" When the Caliph heard my words and knew that I was a man of exceeding generosity and of very few words, one in whom is no forwardness (as this youth would have it whom I rescued from mortal risk and who has so scurvily repaid me), he laughed with excessive laughter until he fell upon his back. Then he said to me, "O Silent Man, do your six brothers resemble you in wisdom and knowledge and spareness of speech?" I replied, "Never were they like me! You put reproach upon me, O Commander of the Faithful, and it does not become you to compare my brothers with me; for, from the abundance of their speech and their deficiency of courtesy and gravity, each one of them has acquired some infirmity or other. One is one-eyed, another palsied, a third stone blind, a fourth cropped of ears and nose and a fifth shorn of both lips, while the sixth is a hunchback and a cripple. And conceive not, O Commander of the Faithful, that I am prodigal of speech; but I must necessarily explain to you that I am a man of greater worth and fewer words than any of them. From each one of my brothers hangs a tale of how he came by his bodily defect and these I will relate to you." So the Caliph gave ear to