Know, O King, that a fox and a wolf once cohabited in the same den, harbouring within it together by day and resorting there by night; but the wolf was cruel and oppressive to the fox. They abode thus awhile, till it so befell that the fox exhorted the wolf to use gentle dealing and leave off his ill deeds, saying, "If you persist in yours arrogance, Perhaps Allah will give the son of Adam power over you, for he is past master in guile and wile; and by this artifice he brings down the birds from the firmament and he hals the mighty fish forth of the flood waters: and he cutts the mountain and transports it from place to place. All this is of his craft and wiliness: Why do you betake yourself to equity and fair dealing and leave frowardness and tyranny; and you will fare all the better for it." But the wolf would not accept his counsel and answered him roughly, saying, "What right have you to speak of matters of weight and importance?" And he dealt the fox a cuff that laid him senseless; but, when he revived, he smiled in the wolf's face and, excusing himself for his unseemly speech, repeated these two couplets,

"If any sin I sinned, or did I anything In love of you, which hateful mischief wrought; My sin I sore repent and pardon sue; So give the sinner gift of pardon sought."

The wolf accepted his excuse and held his hand from further ill treatment, saying, "Speak not of whatever concerns you not, lest you hear what will please you not." The fox answered, "I hear and I obey!"—

When it was the One Hundred and Forty ninth night

The fox answered, "I hear and I obey! I will abstain henceforth from what pleases you not; for the sage says, 'Have a care that you speak not of that whereof you are not asked; leave that which concerns you not for that which concerns you, and by no means lavish good counsel on the wrongous, for they will repay it to you with wrong.' " And reflecting on the words of the wolf he smiled in his face, but in his heart he meditated treachery against him and privily said, "There is no help but that I compass the destruction of this wolf." So he bore with his injurious usage, saying to himself, "truly insolence and evil speaking are causes of perdition and cast into confusion, and it is said, 'The insolent is silent and the ignorant does repent; and whoever fears, to him safety is sent': moderation marks the noble and gentle manners are, of gains, the grandest. It behoves me to dissemble with this tyrant and needs must he be cast down." Then he said to the wolf "truly, the Lord pardons his erring servant and relents towards him, if he confess his offences; and I am a weak slave and have offended in presuming to counsel you. If you knew the pain that befell me by your buffet, you would ken that even the elephant could not stand against it nor endure it: but I complain not of this blow's hurt, because of the joy and gladness that has happened me through it; for though it was to me exceeding sore yet was its issue of the happiest. And with truth says the sage, 'The blow of the teacher is at first right hurtful, but the end of it is sweeter than strained honey.'" the wolf said, "I pardon yours offence and I cancel your fault; but beware of my force and avow yourself my thrall; for you have learned my severity unto him who shows his hostility!"

Thereupon the fox prostrated himself before the wolf, saying, "Allah lengthen your life and may you never cease to overthrow your foes!" And he did not stop to fear the wolf and to wheedle him and dissemble with him. Now it came to pass that one day, the fox went to a vineyard and saw a breach in its walls; but he mistrusted it and said to himself, "truly, for this breach there must be some cause and the old saw says, 'whoever sees a cleft in the earth and shunns it not and is not wary in approaching it, the same is self deluded and exposes himself to danger and destruction.' Indeed, it is well known that some folk make the figure of a fox in their vineyards; nay, they even set before the semblance grapes in plates, that foxes may see it and come to it and fall into perdition. In very truth I regard this breach as a snare and the proverb says, 'Caution is one half of cleverness.' Now prudence requires that I examine this breach and see if there be anything within it which may lead to perdition; and coveting shall not make me cast myself in to destruction."

So he went up to the hole and walked round it right warily, and lo! it was a deep pit, which the owner of the vineyard had dug to trap within it the wild beasts which laid waste his vines. Then he said to himself, "You have gained, for that you have refrained!"; and he looked and saw that the hole was lightly covered with dust and matting. So he drew back from it saying, "Praised be Allah that I was wary of it! I hope that my enemy, the wolf, who makes my life miserable, will fall into it; so will the vineyard be left to me and I shall enjoy it alone and dwell within it at peace." Saying thus, he shook his head and laughed a loud laugh and began versifying,

"Would Heaven I saw at this hour The Wolf fallen down in this well He who anguisht my heart for so long, And garred me drain eisel and fel! Heaven grant after this I may live Free of Wolf for long fortunate spell When I've rid grapes and vineyard of him, And in bunch spoiling happily dwell."

His verse being finished he returned in haste to the wolf and said to him, "Allah has made plain for you the way into the vineyard without toil and toil. This is of yours auspicious fortune; so good luck to you and may you enjoy the plentiful plunder and the profuse provisions which Allah has opened up to you without trouble!" The wolf asked, "What proof have you of what you assertest?": and the fox answered, "I went up to the vineyard and found that the owner was dead, having been torn to pieces by wolves: so I entered the orchard and saw the fruit shining upon the trees." The wolf doubted not the fox's report and his gluttony gat hold of him; so he arose and repaired to the cleft, for that greed blinded him; whilst the fox falling behind him lay as one dead, quoting to the case the following couplet,

"For Layla's favour do you greed? But, bear in mind Greed is a yoke of harmful weight on neck of man."

And when the wolf had reached the breach the fox said, "Enter the vineyard: you are spared the trouble of climbing a ladder, for the garden wall is broken down, and with Allah it rests to fulfil the benefit." So the wolf went on walking and thought to enter the vineyard; but when he came to the middle of the pit covering he fell through; whereupon the fox shook for joy and gladness; his care and concern left him and he sang out for delight and improvised these couplets,

"Fortune had mercy on the soul of me, And for my torments now shows clemency, Granting whatever gift my heart desired, And far removing what I feared to see: I will, good truth, excuse her all her sins She sinned in days gone by and much sinned she: Yea, her injustice she has shown in this, She whitened locks that were so black of blee: But now for this same wolf escape there's none, Of death and doom he has full certainty. Then all the vineyard comes beneath my rule, I'll brook no partner who's so fond a fool."

Then the fox looked into the cleft and, seeing the wolf weeping in repentance and sorrow for himself, wept with him; whereupon the wolf raised his head to him and asked, "Is it of pity for me you weepest, O Father of the Fortlet?" The fox answered, "No, by Him who cast you into this pit! I weep for the length of your past life and for regret that you did not fall into the pit before this day; for had you done so before I foregathered with you, I had rested and enjoyed repose: but you were spared till the fulfilment of yours allotted term and your destined time." Then the wolf said to him as one jesting, "O evil doer, go to my mother and tell her what has befallen me; Perhaps she may devise some device for my release." The fox replied, "Of a truth you have been brought to destruction by the excess of your greed and yours exceeding gluttony, since you are fallen into a pit from where you will never escape. Know you not the common proverb, O you witless wolf, 'whoever takes no thought as to how things end, him shall Fate never befriend nor shall he safe from perils go." "O Reynard," the wolf said, "you was wont to show me fondness and covet my friendliness and fear the greatness of my strength. Hate me not rancorously because of that I did with you; for he who has power and forgives, his reward Allah gives; even as says the poet,

'Sow kindness seed in the unfittest stead; 'Twill not be wasted whereso you will sow: For kindness albe buried long, yet none Shall reap the crop save sower who garred it grow.'"

Rejoined the fox, "O witlessest of beasts of prey and stupidest of the wild brutes which the wolds overstray! Have you forgotten yours arrogance and insolence and tyranny, and your disregarding the due of good fellowship and your refusing to be advised by what the poet says?

'Wrong not your neighbour even if you have power; The wronger alway vengeance harvest reaps: Yours eyes shall sleep, while bides the wronged on wake A cursing you; and Allah's eye never sleeps.'"

"O Abu 'l Hosayn," The wolf replied, "twit me not with my past sins; for forgiveness is expected of the generous and doing kind deeds is the truest of treasures. How well says the poet,

'Haste to do kindness while you have much power, For at all seasons you have not such power.'"

And he did not stop to humble himself before the fox and say "Perhaps, you can do something to deliver me from destruction." The fox replied, "O you wolf, you witless deluded, deceitful trickster! Hope not for deliverance, for this is but the just reward of your foul dealing and its due retaliation."

Then he laughed with chops wide open and repeated these two couplets,

"No longer beguile me, you'll fail of your will! What can't be you seek, You have sown so reap Ill!"

the wolf said, "O gentlest of ravenous beasts, I glad hold you too faithful to leave me in this pit." Then he wept and complained and, with tears streaming from his eyes, recited these two couplets,

"O you whose favours have been out of compt, Whose gifts are more than may be numbered! Never mischance befell me yet from time But that I found your hand right glad to aid."

"O you ninny foe," the fox said, "how are you reduced to humiliation and prostration and abjection and submission, after insolence and pride and tyranny and arrogance! Truly, I kept company with you only for fear of your fury and I cajoled you without one hope of fair treatment from you: but now trembling is come upon you and vengeance has overtaken you." And he repeated these two couplets,

"O you who seek innocence to 'guile, You'rt caught in trap of yours intentions vile: Now drain the draught of shamefullest mischance, And be with other wolves cut off, you scroyle!"

The wolf replied, "O you clement one, speak not with the tongue of enemies nor look with their eyes; but fulfil the covenant of fellowship with me, before the time of applying remedy cease to be. Rise and make ready to get me a rope and tie one end of it to a tree; then let the other down to me, that I may lay hold of it, so Perhaps I shall from this my strait win free, and I will give you all my hand possesses of wealth and fee." the fox said, "You persistest in conversation concerning what will not procure your liberation. Hope not for this, for you will never, never get of me wherewithal to set you at liberty; but call to mind your past misdeeds and the craft and perfidy you did imagine against me and bethink you how near you are to being stoned to death. For know that your soul is about the world to quit and cease in it and depart from it; so will you to destruction hie and ill is the abiding place you will aby!" Rejoined the wolf, "O Father of the Fortlet, hasten to return to amity and persist not in this rancorous enmity. Know that whoever from ruin saves a soul, is as if he had quickened it and made it whole; and whoever saves a soul alive, is as if he had saved all mankind. Follow not frowardness, for the wise forbid it: and it were most manifest frowardness to leave me in this pit draining the agony of death and dressed to look upon my own doom, whenas it lies in your power to deliver me from my stowre. So do your best to release me and deal with me benevolently." The fox answered, "O you base and barbarous wretch, I compare you, because of the fairness of your professions and expressions, and the foulness of your intentions and your inventions to the Falcon and the Partridge." The wolf asked, "How so?"; and the fox began to tell