Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 3.9.3

3.9.3

The second is but the record of the ready wit of a woman. Some years after the death of a wealthy banyane, or Gentile merchant, who had always been employed in the King's service, and, like the generality of his countrymen, had been a notorious usurer, the son became clamorous for a certain portion of the money. The widow refusing to comply with the young man's request, on account of his profligacy and extravagance, he had the baseness and folly to make Chah-Jehan acquainted with the real amount of the property left by his father, about two hundred thousand crowns. The Mogol immediately summoned the old lady, and, in presence of the assembled Omrahs, commanded her to send him immediately one hundred thousand roupies, and to put her son in possession of fifty thousand. Having issued this peremptory injunction, he ordered the attendants to turn the widow out of the hall.