Bahram Gur, Lonbak and Barahem

Riding out one day to hunt lions, Bahram met an old man with a stick who had a tale about his town. Two men lived there. Barahem, a Jew, had silver and gold and was a cheat and a miser. Lonbak, the water-carrier, was generous, kept a good table and spoke kindly. A noble in the king's party confirmed it. Lonbak carried water for half the day and spent the other half looking for guests, keeping nothing back for tomorrow, while nobody had ever seen Barahem's bread.

Bahram set a test. He had a crier announce in the market that nobody should buy Lonbak's water. At dusk he rode to Lonbak's door and asked for a night's lodging, saying he was a soldier who had lost the king's party in the dark. Lonbak was delighted. He rubbed down the horse, set out a chessboard to pass the time while he made supper, and brought wine. In the morning he begged his guest to stay another day. He went out with his water, but nobody would buy, so he sold the shirt off his back to buy meat. On the third day he pawned his water-skin and his gear. On the fourth he offered to keep the stranger for two more weeks, "if you are not afraid of the king". Bahram blessed him and rode away, promising that his hospitality would bear fruit.

The miser's door

That evening Bahram knocked at Barahem's door with the same story. A servant brought back a refusal: the house was small, and its owner poor and hungry. Bahram said he would sleep outside the door. At last Barahem let him in on conditions: he must ask for nothing, sweep up any dung his horse dropped and carry it to the plain, and pay for any broken tiles. Bahram agreed, tied his horse, spread his saddle-cloth and lay down with the saddle for a pillow. Barahem locked the door, brought out his food and ate alone, quoting an old saying: whoever has food in this world does not look at the man who has none. Then he drank, and offered another: the man with money is cheerful, and the man without goes dry-lipped and hungry at midnight, like you.

At dawn Barahem demanded that the dung be swept away as promised. Bahram offered to pay a servant to do it, but there was no one. So he drew from his boot a fine silk handkerchief scented with musk, gathered the dung in it and threw it all into a ditch, and Barahem ran to fish the silk out again. Bahram went home and laughed, and told no one.

Next morning, crowned and on his throne, he sent an honest man with pack animals to see what Barahem's house held. There were more jewels than in the royal treasury. A thousand camels were brought from the plain of Jahrom, and two hundred loads were still left behind. Bahram gave a hundred camel-loads to Lonbak. To Barahem he repeated the saying a horseman had told him, that the man who has, eats, and the man who has not, withers. He gave him four dirhams as capital to start again and gave the rest of his wealth to the poor.

The poem calls Barahem "the Jew" again and again and heaps insults on him, and modern readers note that the portrait draws on the prejudices of its time. The tale's own lesson is about hoarding and hospitality, and its hero is Lonbak, the poor man with an open door.