Prevod

It is told that a man of Baghdad once lived in great prosperity and possessed considerable wealth. But his fortune dwindled, his circumstances changed, and he was left with nothing, earning his daily bread only with the greatest toil. One night, as he lay asleep, weighed down by sorrow and distress, he heard a voice in a dream saying, “Your livelihood awaits you in Egypt. Go there and seek it.” So he journeyed to Egypt, and by the time he arrived, evening had fallen, so he slept in a mosque. Beside the mosque stood a house, and Almighty God ordained that a band of thieves should enter the mosque and make their way from it into that house. The household awoke at the sound of the thieves and raised an outcry. The governor came to their aid with his men, and the thieves fled. Entering the mosque, the governor found the man from Baghdad asleep, arrested him, and had him so cruelly beaten with whips that he was near death, then cast him into prison. There he remained for three days, after which the governor summoned him and asked, “What country are you from?” “From Baghdad,” he replied. “And what business brought you to Egypt?” The man said, “I heard a voice in a dream telling me, ‘Your livelihood awaits you in Egypt. Go there.’ And when I came to Egypt, I found the livelihood it had promised me: those lashes I received from you.” The governor laughed until his back teeth showed and said, “You fool! Three times I have heard a voice in a dream telling me, ‘In Baghdad there is a house in such-and-such a quarter, with such-and-such features. In its courtyard is a little garden with a fountain basin beneath it, and there lies a vast treasure. Go there and take it.’ Yet I never went, while you, in your foolishness, have travelled from one country to another for the sake of a vision that was nothing but a jumble of dreams!” Then he gave him some dirhams and said, “Use these to help you return to your own country.” And dawn overtook Shahrazad, and she fell silent, leaving her tale untold.

When it was the three hundred and fifty-second night

She said: It has reached me, O fortunate King, that the governor gave the man from Baghdad some dirhams and said, “Use these to help you return to your own country.” He took them and returned to Baghdad. Now the house in Baghdad that the governor had described was this very man’s own house. When he reached his home, he dug beneath the fountain basin and found a great treasure, and God bestowed abundant prosperity upon him. This was a wondrous coincidence.