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Then she brought me hither and hardly had I entered the house

when the black seized on me, and I have remained in this case

three whole years through the perfidy of the accursed beldam."

Then my brother asked her, "Is there anything of his in the

house?"; whereto she answered, "Great store of wealth, and if

thou art able to carry it away, do so and Allah give thee good of

it" My brother went with her and she opened to him sundry chests

wherein were money bags, at which he was astounded; then she said

to him, "Go now and leave me here, and fetch men to remove the

money.", He went out and hired ten men, but when he returned he

found the door wide open, the damsel gone and nothing left but

some small matter of coin and the household stuffs.[FN#680] By

this he knew that the girl had overreached him; so he opened the

store rooms and seized what was in them, together with the rest

of the money, leaving nothing in the house.