Katrina had come, and she was a vain woman and a lover of all luxury, and she commanded Israel to tax the people afresh.

He obeyed her through three bad years; but many a time his heart reproached him that he dealt corruptly by the poor people, and when he saw them borrowing money for the Governor's tributes on their lands and houses, and when he stood by while they and their sons were cast into prison for the bonds which they could not pay to the usurers Abraham or Judah or Reuben, then his soul cried out against him that he ate the bread of such a mistress.
But out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness, and out of this coming of the Spanish wife of Ben Aboo came deliverance for Israel from the torment of his false position.
There was an aged and pious Moor in Tetuan, called Abd Allah, who was rumoured to have made savings from his business as a gunsmith.

Going to mosque one evening, with fifteen dollars in his waistband, he unstrapped his belt and laid it on the edge of the fountain while he washed his feet before entering, for his back was no longer supple.

Then a younger Moor, coming to pray at the same time, saw the dollars, and snatched them up and ran.

Abd Allah could not follow the thief, so he went to the Kasbah and told his story to the Governor.
Just at that time Ben Aboo had the Kaid of Fez on a visit to him.