A trickster braided his hair and claimed to be a descendant of Ali. He entered a city with a caravan from Hejaz, pretending to have returned from pilgrimage, and presented a poem to the king, claiming it as his own.
The king bestowed many gifts upon him and honored him. However, one of the king’s courtiers, who had returned from a sea voyage that year, said, “I saw him in Basra during the Eid al-Adha! It is clear he is not a pilgrim.” Another said, “His father was a Christian in Malatya, so how can he be a noble?” They found his poem in the collection of Anvari.
The king ordered him to be beaten and exiled for telling so many lies.
The man said, “O Lord of the Earth! Let me say one more thing in your service. If it is not true, I deserve any punishment you decree.”
The king said, “Speak, what is it?”
He said:
If a stranger offers you yogurt
It is two measures of water and one spoon of curd
If you want the truth, hear it from me
The world-traveled often tells lies
The king laughed and said, “He has never spoken a truer word in his life.”
He ordered that the man’s wishes be fulfilled and let him go happily.
