Reaping good by Queen Shahrazad

ONE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS 
Queen Shahrazad told a story every night to her husband and king, with lessons, morals and wise statements. 10 greatest sayings from the first four stories:

1. Sow good, even on an unworthy soil; for it will not be lost wherever it is sown.

Sow good because sowing good may lead onto to something good. Also we can’t always see everything that is going on in the world. Someone may actually observe our goodness. There is the adage reap as you sow – so if you sow bad even when you think it is justified you will reap bad.

2. THE POWER OF A PROMISE
Every time you keep a promise you add trust to the world. Every time you break a promise you make the world just a little less stable. All the people in the stories kept their promises and this added to their good reputations.

3.  ADDING MEANING TO LIFE
Sometimes we are alive but we don’t have the true dignity that life is supposed to be.

4. Reckless actions have consequences. Think before you throw (think before you leap).

5. When people are impressed with our goodness, they may go out of their way to help even though they are not obliged to do so.

6. Wickedness has consequences. If you do bad, don’t be surprised if there is a day of reckoning.

7. Don’t’spend all the money you have. Keep some in reserve. With this money you may be able to start over again.

8. Find constructve ways to deal with jealousy because if you don’t there may be dire consequences.

9. Revenge is bad and will lead to bad consequences.

10. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

STORY TIME

The opening story is about a businessman who is on a business trip in a foreign land.

RECKLESSNESS

He sits down in a garden and carelessly throws away a date stone. Reckless actions have consequences and the date kills the son of a genie.

VENGEANCE

The genie wants justice and for the businessman to forfeit his life.

PROMISES KEPT

The businessman requests for time to settle his affairs  - the genie trusts him. He settles his affairs and returns.

GOOD IMPRESSION

Just as the businessman prepares for his demise – three shiekhs come by and were impressed that he had kept his promise to return.

POUND OF FLESH
Each sheikh bargains that if they tell a wondrous story they could have one third of the blood that is due to the genie.

PACT WITH THE DEVIL

The genie agrees.

GAZELLE OF A STORY
The first sheikh travelled with a gazelle who was actually his wife. She had not  given him any children and so he took a concubine (like a mistress). She blessed him with a beautiful boy.  However, when the sheikh had to go on a business trip the wife who had studied the art of enchantment transformed the concubine and son into cow and calf respectively and put into the care of the sheikh’s herdsman. On his return his wife told him that the concubine had died and his son had fled.

When it was time to sacrifice a cow, the concubine-cow was chosen. The herdsman killed the cow but found no fat or flesh, but only skin and bone. The sheikh then called for a calf but the calf made such a noise that he had no heart to do it. The calf was given to the herdsman and the herdsman’s daughter who also had knowledge of enchantment recognised the calf as the sheikh’s son. When the sheikh was told, he asked the herdsman’s daughter to turn the calf back to human, but she was only prepared to do so on two conditions. One condition was that she turn the wife into a gazelle.

BROTHERLY TREACHERY

The second sheikh travelled with two trusty hounds.  They were actually the sheikh’s brothers who had tried to kill him because they were jealous of his good fortune. He had always been fair with his brothers sharing his wealth with them yet they were still jealous and wanted all the property. However, when the brothers attempted to kill the sheikh and his wife – the wife revealed her true colors. She was a genie. She saved her husband. She wanted to kill the brothers, but the sheikh implored her not to on the basis of brotherhood. Instead she arranged for the brothers to be dogs for 10 years.

INFIDELITY
The mule of the third sheikh was his wife too.  She has been unfaithful with a black slave. She had tried to enchant the sheikh into becoming a dog but this spell was undone. The person who had undone the spell then instructed the sheikh to enchant his wife into a mule.

PROMISE KEPT
The genie found the three stories wondrous and gave up his claim to the sheikhs. The merchant thanked the sheikhs and they all went on their way.

The classical image of a 'sheikh': Sheikh Sattam de Haddadin of Palmyra, by Russian painter Alexandr Evgenievich Yacovleff.