The Merchant Who Kept His Promise

Night had fallen over the palace. Scheherazade sat on her cushion, her little sister Dunyazad sat at the foot of the royal couch, and King Shahryar waited to hear what she would say.

Night 1

Scheherazade: It has reached me, O wise and happy King, that there was once a rich merchant who did business in many cities...

One hot day the merchant rode out to collect money that people owed him. The sun beat down, so he stopped to rest in the shade of a tree. He opened his saddlebags, took out some bread and dry dates, and began to eat. Each time he finished a date, he threw the stone away as hard as he could.

Suddenly the ground had shaken, and a huge jinni, an ifrit, stood before him with a sword. The merchant could not believe his ears.

The merchant: Your son? I have never even seen your son!

The jinni: When you threw away your date stones, one of them struck my son as he walked by. And he died!

The merchant was full of sorrow. "If I did that, I did not mean to," he said. "It was an accident. Please forgive me." But the jinni would not listen. "There is no help for it," he said.

Then the merchant had an idea.

So the jinni let him go. The merchant rode home. He paid everyone what he owed. He told his family what had happened, and for a whole year he stayed with them. When the year was over, it was time to say goodbye. His family wept, and so did his neighbours.

One year later...

The merchant: I gave my word. I must go back.

He rode back to the garden and sat down under the same tree to wait. As he sat there, an old man came walking by, leading a gazelle on a chain.

The first old man: Why are you sitting alone in this place? Jinn live here!

The first old man: A man who keeps his promises! I will stay with you and see what happens.

The merchant had told him the whole story. Soon a second old man came by with two black dogs. Then a third old man arrived with a reddish-brown mule. Each one heard the merchant's story, and each one sat down beside him.

Three old men, three strange animals and one worried merchant.

Then a cloud of dust spun across the field like a whirlwind.

The jinni: Get up! It is time!

WHOOOSH!

The merchant cried, and the three old men cried with him. Then the first old man, the one with the gazelle, stepped forward and bowed.

So the old man began. "This gazelle," he said, "is really my wife, the daughter of my uncle. We were married for almost thirty years, but we had no children. So I married a second wife, and she gave me a son as bright as the full moon. When the boy was fifteen, I had to travel far away on business.

"But my first wife had secretly learned magic. While I was gone, she turned my son into a calf and his mother into a cow, and gave them both to the herdsman. When I came home, she told me, 'Your second wife has died, and your son has run away.'"

Long ago, while I was far away...

ZING!

"For a whole year I was sad. Then came the time of the great festival, when people share food with their neighbours. I asked the herdsman to bring me a fat cow. He brought the cow that was really my second wife. When she saw me, she cried real tears. I felt sorry for her and could not go on. But my first wife insisted, and the herdsman led the poor cow away. I never saw her again, and I wished I had listened to my heart.

When the cow saw me, she cried real tears.

"Then the herdsman brought a calf. As soon as it saw me, it broke its rope, ran to me, and rubbed its head against me, crying. My heart melted. 'Let this calf go,' I said."

The first wife: You must take this calf! It is the festival!

"So, not knowing it was my own son, I took my knife and walked slowly toward the calf..."

But just then, Scheherazade saw the first light of dawn at the window, and she stopped.

So the sun rose on a new day, and Scheherazade was safe. What happened to the calf? Find out in Night 2.