One day Harun ar-Rashid set off to go around the town to see the people, (to see) what their situation is and how they are living. He went off walking around, walking around a lot, having put a basket of dates on his shoulder, a big basket. He wandered around and saw that one, saw that one, saw this one, he saw everybody. After evening came, he went back to go to his home and saw a shop with the door open. He went inside (and saw) a certain man who was very sad and upset. He said ‘Why (are you) like this, my friend? Why are you so sad?’ He said ‘Ah, did you not have anything better to do than to come? Have you come to give me a lesson? What will you do for me?’ He said ‘Ah, well perhaps I might help you.’ He does not know that he is Harun ar-Rashid. Harun ar-Rashid, that is the head of all the town. He said ‘No, do not bother about me. My own trouble is enough for me.’ He said ‘No, (if) I do not help you, I shall give this basket of dates to you. Tell me so I can see what the matter is.’ He pressed him a lot. After he had pressed him a lot, the lad, the owner of the shop, said ‘It is not hidden from God, why should it be hidden from you? I shall not hide things from you. This is what happened to me. Three people who came to me gave me three hundred gold coins. They gave to me. My job is this, to take money from people, to give money to people, to take gold from people, to give gold to people. I do business in this. But these three people came to me and gave three hundred gold coins. They said “Look after them for me.” So I looked after them. They signed (an agreement) that nobody has a right to come to take these gold coins. “The three of us must come together. There is nobody who should come to take them.” They signed and went. They signed and went.’ He said ‘Not long passed and I saw that one of them came back. One of the friends came back. He said to me “Excuse me, we think we have given you too few gold coins, not three hundred, but two hundred.” I said “No, it is not possible.” “No” he said “We friends were just now talking together. One of them said “Look, look, this one’s mind was not composed, I gave two hundred and he thought they were three hundred. Come, bring them so I can count them.”’ He said ‘I gave them for him to count. (When) he was counting them, at that time there was a knock at the door. I went to open the door and saw that those two other friends had come. I said “Ah, what do you want?” They said “We have come to check and tell you that (if) our friend has come and entered, do not give him the money, the gold coins.” I said “He is counting them!”’ We went in to see why he was counting them, but he was not there. Neither were the gold coins there, nor was the man there. He had taken them through the window and run off. The two said to me that I must give them the three hundred gold coins. Now where can I give them?! How can I give them?! After he has taken and stolen them, how can I give them?!’ He says to Harun ar-Rashid ‘Tomorrow they have summoned me to court’—the word dɑ̄dgɑ̄h means court. He says ‘They have summoned me to court, I have to go tomorrow to the court. If not, they will put me in jail.’ He said ‘You be there and I shall see you there.’ In the morning that man goes to the court, they have summoned him to court. He sees that Harun ar-Rashid is sitting there, he is the judge. Afterwards those two people came in, the owners of the gold coins came in. The judge said to them ‘Well, you have a complaint concerning this man. You have deposited three hundred gold coins with him and have signed (an agreement) that he would not give (them) to anybody, that the three of you must be present. The three of you deposited them together and the three of you will take it (the deposit).’ They said ‘Yes, that is true.’ He said ‘OK, go and bring that friend of yours, your money is ready, come and take it.’ They said ‘We do not know where he is.’ He said ‘No, you know where he is. You signed (an agreement) here that the three of you must take it together. Go and find him and bring him, then I’ll give (you) the three hundred gold coins.’ They put them in jail. They grant the lad permission to leave and he goes to his shop. He himself descends from the room, from the place of the judge. He descends in order to go, while all the people lower their heads, they lower their heads like this. The lad says ‘Who was that?’ They said ‘It is Harun ar-Rashid, my dear. He is the greatest man in the whole of Baghdad. How did you not know him?’ Then he knew that it was Harun ar-Rashid who had been sitting in his shop.