' And Jaafer went out,
weeping and saying, 'Verily, I am beset by deaths; the pitcher
does not come off for aye unbroken. I can do nothing in this
matter; but He who saved me the first time may save me again. By
Allah, I will not leave my house during the three days that
remain to me, and God who is the Truth shall do what He will.' So
he kept his house three days, and on the fourth day, he summoned
Cadis and witnesses and made his last dispositions and bade
farewell to his children, weeping. Presently in came a messenger
from the Khalif and said to him, 'The Commander of the Faithful
is beyond measure wroth and sends to seek thee and swears that
the day shall not pass without thy being hanged.' When Jaafer
heard this, he wept and his children and slaves and all that were
in the house wept with him. Then they brought him his little
daughter, that he might bid her farewell. Now he loved her more
than all his other children; so he pressed her to his breast and
kissed her and wept over his separation from her; when lo, he
felt something round in her bosom and said to her, 'What's this
in thy bosom?' 'O my father,' answered she, 'it is an apple with
the name of our lord the Khalif written on it. Our slave Rihan
brought it to me four days ago and would not let me have it, till
I gave him two dinars for it.' When Jaafer heard this, he put his
hand into her bosom and took out the apple and knew it and
rejoiced, saying, 'O swift Dispeller of trouble[FN#59]!' Then he
sent for the slave and said to him, 'Harkye Rihan, whence hadst
thou this apple?' 'By Allah, O my lord,' replied he, 'though
lying might get me off, yet is it safer to tell the truth[FN#60]!
I did not steal it from thy palace nor from the palace of His
Highness nor the garden of the Commander of the Faithful.
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