" Quoth
she: "Right is thy rede! Still would I weigh the moneys and have
some inkling of their amount," and he replied, "As thou pleasest,
but see thou tell no man." So she went off in haste to Kasim's home to
borrow weights and scales wherewith she might balance the ashrafis and
make some reckoning of their value. And when she could not find Kasim,
she said to his wife, "Lend me, I pray thee, thy scales for a moment."
Replied her sister-in-law, "Hast thou need of the bigger balance or
the smaller?" and the other rejoined, "I need not the large scales,
give me the little," and her sister-in-law cried, "Stay here a
moment whilst I look about and find thy want."
With this pretext Kasim's wife went aside and secretly smeared wax
and suet over the pan of the balance, that she might know what thing
it was Ali Baba's wife would weigh, for she made sure that whatso it
be, some bit thereof would stick to the wax and fat. So the woman took
this opportunity to satisfy her curiosity, and Ali Baba's wife,
suspecting naught thereof, carried home the scales and began to
weigh the gold, whilst Ali Baba ceased not digging.
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