After awhile, the news reached
the envious man of the good fortune that had befallen his old
neighbour and the high consideration in which he was held: so he
set out for the town in which the latter dwelt and repaired to
the hermitage, where the envied man welcomed him and received him
with the utmost honour. Quoth the envier, 'I have journeyed
hither on purpose to tell thee a piece of good news. So order thy
fakirs to retire to their cells and go with me apart, for I will
not say what I have to tell thee, except privately where none may
overhear us.' Accordingly the envied man ordered the fakirs to
retire to their cells; and they did so. Then he took the other by
the hand and walked on with him a little way, till they came to
the deserted well, when the envious man gave the other a push and
cast him into the well, unseen of any; after which, he went out
and went his way thinking that he had killed him. Now this well
was haunted by Jinn, who bore up the envied man and let him down
little by little, so that he reached the bottom unhurt, and they
seated him on a stone. Then said one of the Jinn to the others,
'Know ye who this is?' And they answered, 'No.' Quoth he, 'This
is the envied man who fled from him who envied him and settled in
our city, where he built him this oratory and entertains us with
his litanies and recitations of the Koran.
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