and said to the barber, “The purse is empty; there is nothing in
it.” Whereupon Abu Sir knew that Abu Kir had taken that which was
therein and had fled and he asked the porter, “Hast thou not seen my
friend?” Answered the doorkeeper, “I have not seen him these three days;
and indeed methought you had departed, thou and he.” The barber cried,
“Not so; but he coveted my money and took it and fled seeing me sick.”
Then he fell a-weeping and a-wailing but the doorkeeper said to him, “No
harm shall befal thee, and Allah will requite him his deed.” So he went
away and cooked him some broth, whereof he ladled out a plateful and
brought it to him; nor did he cease to tend him and maintain him with
his own monies for two months’ space, when the barber sweated[205] and
the Almighty made him whole of his sickness. Then he stood up and said
to the porter, “An ever the Most High Lord enable me, I will surely
requite thee thy kindness to me; but none requiteth save the Lord of His
bounty!” Answered the porter, “Praised be He for thy recovery! I dealt
not thus with thee but of desire for the face of Allah the Bountiful.”
Then the barber went forth of the Khan and threaded the market-streets
of the town, till Destiny brought him to the bazar wherein was Abu Kir’s
dyery, and he saw the vari- stuffs dispread before the shop and
a jostle of folk crowding to look upon them. So he questioned one of the
townsmen and asked him, “What place is this and how cometh it that I see
the folk crowding together?”; whereto the man answered, saying, “This is
the Sultan’s Dyery, which he set up for a foreigner Abu Kir hight; and
whenever he dyeth new stuff, we all flock to him and divert ourselves by
gazing upon his handiwork, for we have no dyers in our land who know how
to stain with these colours; and indeed there befel him with the dyers
who are in the city that which befel.”[206] And he went on to tell him
all that had passed between Abu Kir and the master-dyers and how he had
complained of them to th