Jawamiʿ al-hikayat wa lawamiʿ al-riwayat 6.2

6.2

He called him and said, "If to-morrow you are brought before the Rái, and are charged with having committed a theft in the night preceding, you first deny it, but afterwards confess and say that you buried the property in such and such a place. Rest assured that you shall receive no harm, but shall be made happy by my reward." Next morning, the Rái mounted an elephant, and the ambassadors of the Rái of Hind rode out with him, intending to go to the forest. When they had gone a little way, the Rái saw the courtezan worrying the chief police officer of the city, and saying, "Last night my clothes were stolen; find out who the thieves were, or make good the loss." The Rái asked what the woman was saying, and what she was complaining about. He replied that she complained of a man who came to her house in the previous night, and consorted with her, and when she was asleep stole her clothes. I want time to find the thief or the clothes, but she will not hear of any delay. The Rái said, "She is right. She had only those clothes, and it is your duty to be vigilant, and as you have been negligent you must pay the penalty." The police officer replied, "It is as the king says; still if a man goes at night to the house of a prostitute and carries off her clothes, how am I to blame?