(no subject)

[timelets]

When it was the Seven Hundred and Fourteenth Night,
...

“What manner of man is this Zurayk?”; and they answered, “He was chief of the sharpers of Al-Irak land and could all but pierce mountains and lay hold upon the stars. He would steal the Kohl from the eye and, in brief, he had not his match for roguery; but he hath repented his sins and foresworn his old way of life and opened him a fishmonger’s shop. And now he hath amassed two thousand dinars by the sale of fish and laid them in a purse with strings of silk, to which he hath tied bells and rings and rattles of brass, hung on a peg within the doorway. Every time he openeth his shop he suspendeth the said purse and crieth out, saying, ‘Where are ye, O sharpers of Egypt, O prigs of Al-Irak, O tricksters of Ajam-land? Behold, Zurayk the fishmonger hath hung up a purse in front of his shop, and whoso pretendeth to craft and cunning, and can take it by sleight, it is his.'

The Adventures of Mercury Ali of Cairo. (1001 nights, Vol 7. Translated by Richard Burton).

https://gutenberg.org/files/3441/3441-h/3441-h.htm#chap16