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She said, “I have also heard this tale of the wiles of men. A man fell in love with a woman of great beauty, who had a husband whom she loved and who loved her. She was virtuous and chaste, and the lover could find no way to reach her. When this had gone on for a long time, he began to devise a trick. Now the woman’s husband had a servant boy whom he had brought up in his own house and whom he trusted. The lover approached the boy and kept courting his favor with gifts and kindness until he would do whatever he asked. One day he said to him, ‘My lad, will you not take me into your house when your mistress is out?’ ‘Yes,’ the boy replied. So when his mistress went to the bathhouse and his master went to his shop, the boy came to his friend, took him by the hand, and led him into the house. He then showed him everything in it. The lover, who was resolved upon a plot against the woman, had brought some egg white in a vessel. He went up to the husband’s bed and poured it onto the bedding without the boy seeing him, then left the house and went on his way. An hour later, the husband came home and went to lie down on the bed. Finding a wet patch, he touched it with his hand, and when he saw it, he thought it was a man’s semen. He looked angrily at the boy and said, ‘Where is your mistress?’ The boy replied, ‘She has gone to the bathhouse and will be back at any moment.’ This confirmed his suspicion, and he became convinced that it was semen. He said to the boy, ‘Go at once and fetch your mistress.’

“When she appeared before him, he sprang up and beat her savagely, then bound her arms behind her back and was about to cut her throat. She cried out to the neighbors, who came to her rescue. ‘This man means to kill me,’ she told them, ‘and I know of no wrong I have done.’ The neighbors confronted him and said, ‘You have no right to harm her. Either divorce her or keep her and treat her kindly. We know her to be chaste: she has been our neighbor for many years, and we have never known any evil of her.’ He said, ‘I found something in my bed that looked like a man’s semen, and I do not know how it came to be there.’ One of those present said, ‘Show it to me.’ When he had seen it, he said, ‘Bring me a fire and a pan.’ When these were brought, he took the egg white and fried it over the fire, then ate some himself and gave some to the others. All those present were satisfied that it was egg white, and the husband realized that he had wronged his wife and that she was innocent. Then the neighbors intervened and reconciled the couple, though he had already divorced her. Thus the lover’s scheme against the unsuspecting woman came to nothing. Know, then, O King, that such are the wiles of men.” The king ordered his son to be put to death, but the second vizier stepped forward, kissed the ground before him, and said, “O King, do not be hasty in putting your son to death. His mother was not blessed with him until she had despaired of bearing a child, and we hope that he will be a bulwark of your kingdom and a guardian of your wealth. Be patient with him, O King, for perhaps he has a defense to offer. If you hasten to kill him, you will regret it as the merchant regretted his deed.” The king said to him, “How was that? What is his story, Vizier?”