When he discovered this default, he rejoiced therein, and washing
his hands, bowed his head and went out. And when the kitchener saw
that he went and gave him naught, he cried out, saying, "Stay, O pest,
O burglar!" So the larrikin stopped and said to him, "Dost thou cry
out upon me and call to me with these words, O comute?" Whereat the
cook was angry, and coming down from the shop, cried: "What meanest
thou by thy speech, O low fellow, thou that devourest meat and
millet and bread and kitchen and goest forth with 'the peace be on
thee!' as it were the thing had not been and down naught for it?"
Quoth the lackpenny, "Thou liest, O accursed son of a cuckold!"
Whereupon the cook cried out, and laying hold of his debtor's
collar, said, "O Moslems, this fellow is my first customer this day,
and he hath eaten my food and given me naught."
So the folk gathered about them and blamed the ne'er-do-well and
said to him, "Give him the price of that which thou hast eaten." Quoth
he, "I gave him a dirham before I entered the shop," and quoth the
cook: "Be everything I sell this day forbidden to me, if he gave me so
much as the name of a coin! By Allah, he gave me naught, but ate my
food and went out and would have made off, without aught said.
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