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“ The old man grieved sore for him, when he heard his story, and set food before him. So he ate and the old man said to him, ‘Abide here with me, so I may make thee my steward and factor over a farm I have here, and thou shall have of me five dirhems [3] a day.’ ‘God make fair thy reward,’ answered the merchant, ‘and requite thee with benefits!’
So he abode in this employ, till he had sowed and reaped and threshed and winnowed, and all was sheer in his hand and the owner appointed neither inspector nor overseer, but relied altogether upon him. ”

“ God is all-knowing! If it abide [with me] half a score years, I will not sell it save at a profit.’
Then, in his anger, he walled up the door of the granary with clay, and by the ordinance of God the Most High, there came a great rain and descended from the roofs of the house wherein was the wheat [so that the latter rotted] ; and needs must the merchant give the porters five hundred dirhems from his purse, so they should carry it forth and cast it without the city, for that the smell of it was noisome. So his friend said to him, ‘How often did I tell thee thou hadst no luck in wheat? ”

“ STORY OF THE UNLUCKY MERCHANT.
“There was once a man, a merchant, who was fortunate in trade, and at one time his [every] dirhem profited [him] fifty. Presently, his luck turned against him and he knew it not; so he said in himself, ‘I have wealth galore, yet do I weary myself and go round about from country to country ”