He rent his clothes and fell down on the ground insensible.
'The Cadi answered the young Jew with wisdom, saying: "Thou art entitled to the price of one basket of bastirma, and no more, from this my servant; but he, on his side, has a right to all thou ownest.
What wealth can ever compensate him for the haunting fear that on the Last Day he may rise inextricably mingled with thy worthy grandfather?
Go, I say, and never venture to approach him any more, or I shall surely act upon this judgment and denude thee quite." The major-domo--' Cries of 'Miskin! Miskin!' (poor fellow!) interrupted the narrative.
One said: 'I once ate pig's flesh by mistake, but this man's plight is much more horrible.' Suleyman's opponent cried: 'It was a judgment on him, evidently, for his theft of the bastirma.

Say, what became of him thereafter, O narrator ?' 'The major-domo, who, till then, had been a precious rogue--I knew him intimately from a child, and so can vouch for it--became from that day forth the saintliest of men.

He thought about his crime and mourned for it, and deemed himself an unclean beast until he died--may God have mercy on him--and was buried in the Holy City as the Jew desired.
He thought of nothing but good deeds, yet without seeking merit, knowing that nothing he could do would ever cleanse him.

He became the humblest and the best of men, who had before been arrogant and very wicked.

Therefore I say that it is well for men to think of their sins after rather than before committing them.' 'But the intention!--What of the intention, O my master?
His intention was not good.