Presently he arrived at the shop of a cook, who had set his pots and
pans over the fire and washed his saucers and wiped his scales and
swept his shop and sprinkled it. And indeed his fats and oils were
clear and clarified and his spices fragrant, and he himself stood
behind his cooking pots ready to serve customers. So the larrikin,
whose wits had been sharpened by hunger, went in to him and saluting
him, said to him, "Weigh me half a dirham's worth of meat and a
quarter of a dirham's worth of boiled grain, and the like of bread."
So the kitchener weighed it out to him and the good-for-naught entered
the shop, whereupon the man set the food before him and he ate till he
had gobbled up the whole and licked the saucers and sat perplexed,
knowing not how he should do with the cook concerning the price of
that he had eaten, and turning his eyes about upon everything in the
shop.
And as he looked, behold, he caught sight of an earthen pan lying
arsy-versy upon its mouth, so he raised it from the ground and found
under it a horse's tail, freshly cut off and the blood oozing from it,
whereby he knew that the cook adulterated his meat with horseflesh.
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