Arabian Nights Wiki
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Once there lived in the city of Baghdad a very wealthy man who lost all his belongings and his treasures and became very poor. He was so poor that he could only earn his living by laboring day and night. One night, extremely late, he lay down to rest. He was exhausted, dejected, and sick at heart. He fell into a deep sleep and dreamt that a wise old soul came to him and said, "Your fortune is in the city of Cairo; go there and seek it."

The next day, he set out for Cairo. He arrived there deep into the night and he lay down to sleep for a bit in a hostel. Presently, as fate would have it, a company of thieves entered the hostel. They made their way into the house that adjoined the hostel. Soon, the people of the house, aroused by the noise, awoke and cried out, "thieves, thieves!" An alarm was raised and the chief of the police came to their aid with his officers. The robbers made off; but the police entered the hostel and found the man from Baghdad asleep there. They cast him into prison, where they kept him for three days. The chief of police sent for him and said, "Where did you come from?"

"From Baghdad," whispered the man.

"And what brought you to Cairo?" asked the chief.

"I saw in a dream an old soul who said to me, 'Thy fortune is at Cairo; go there at once to find it.' But, when I came here, the fortune that I was promised proved to be an arrest and a jail stay."

The chief of the police laughed until he showed his white, wide, broad teeth. He said to the man from Baghdad, "O man of little wit! Three times have I seen an old soul in a dream who said to me, 'There is a fashionable house in Baghdad, with a fountain in the front garden. Under the fountain there is buried treasure— a great sum of money. Go there and take it.' Of course I did not go. You, on the other hand, you of little wit, have journeyed from place to place, on the faith of a dream, which was but an illusion of sleep."

Then the chief of police gave the man from Baghdad money, saying, "This is to help you get back to your native land."

Now, the house that the chief described was the man's very own house in Baghdad! When he traveled home, he immediately dug underneath the fountain in his garden and discovered a great treasure! He received an abundant fortune in his own yard!

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