سندبادنامه 373.18

373.18

and far beyond the limits of desert, it has been attained through the inclusion of favors and the bestowal of gifts
of this state. And what gratitude could be greater than that the stations of justice
and ranks of excellence of the shah be preserved from hateful consequences and blameworthy ends?
And if the king decrees a punishment by way of haste, I shall submit the advantages of pause to his exalted judgment.
At this hour the shah has ordered that, on the basis of a mere suspicion
and an accusation whose acceptance is far from the endorsement of the intellect and whose contrary is close to natural disposition
and nature, they kill the prince without cause, and divest and strip of its string
the necklace of his life, which is the collar of glories around the neck of the world's existence. And if the shah
does not observe proper deliberation in this matter, and does not command thorough examination and inquiry into its beginning and its end,
he will experience the same regret that that delicate-natured merchant experienced, who at the outset
did not examine or investigate, until in the end he was caught in regret and loss,
and sorrow was of no avail." The king said, "Relate how this matter
and tale happened!"