There was once, in the city of Bokhara, a water carrier, who used to carry water to the house of a goldsmith and had done this thirty years. Now that goldsmith had a wife of exceeding beauty and loveliness, brilliancy and perfect grace; and she was as well renowned for piety, chastity and modesty. One day the water carrier came, as of custom, and poured the water into the cisterns. Now the woman was standing in the midst of the court; so he went close up to her and taking her hand, stroked it and pressed it, then went away and left her. When her husband came home from the bazar, she said to him, "I would have you tell me what thing you have done in the market this day, to anger Almighty Allah." He said, "I have done nothing to offend the Lord." "Nay," rejoined she, "but, By God, you have indeed done some thing to anger Him; and, unless you tell me the whole truth, I will not abide in your house, and you will not see me, nor will I see you." So he confessed, "I will tell you the truth of what I did this day. It so chanced that, as I was sitting in my shop, as of wont, a woman came up to me and bade me make her a bracelet of gold. Then she went away and I wrought her a bracelet and laid it aside. But when she returned and I brought her out the bracelet, she put forth her hand and I clasped the bracelet on her wrist; and I wondered at the whiteness of her hand and the beauty of her wrist, which would captivate any beholder; and I recalled what the poet says,

Her fore arms, dressed with their bangles, show Like fire ablaze on the waves a flow; As by purest gold were the water girt, And belted around by a living lowe.

So I took her hand and pressed it and squeezed it." Said the woman, "Great God! Why did you this ill thing? Know that the water carrier, who has come to our house these thirty years, nor saw you ever any treason in him, took my hand this day and pressed and squeezed it."

Said her husband, "O woman let us crave pardon of Allah! Truly, I repent of what I did, and do you ask forgiveness of the Lord for me." She cried, "Allah pardon me and you, and receive us into his holy keeping."—

When it was the Three Hundred and Ninety first night

And on the next day, the water carrier came in to the jeweller's wife and, throwing himself at her feet, grovelled in the dust and besought pardon of her, saying, "O my lady, acquit me of that which Satan deluded me to do; for it was he that seduced me and led me astray." She answered, "Go your ways, the sin was not in you, but in my husband, for that he did what he did in his shop, and Allah has retaliated upon him in this world." And it is related that the goldsmith, when his wife told him how the water carrier had used her, said, "Tit for tat, and blow for blow!; had I done more the water carrier had done more";—which became a current byword among the folk. Therefore it behoves a wife to be both outward and inward with her husband; contenting herself with little from him, if he cannot give her much, and taking pattern by Ayishah the Truthful and Fatimah the virgin mother (Allah Almighty accept of them twain!), that she may be of the company of the righteous ancestry. And I have heard the following tale of

Khusrau and Shirin and the Fisherman. 91