I heard of a merchant who had one hundred and fifty loaded camels and forty servant slaves.

One night on the island of Kish, he took me to his chamber.

All night he did not rest from uttering rambling words, saying: 'My business partner is in Turkestan, and such and such goods are in India, and this is the deed for such and such land, and so-and-so is the guarantor for such and such a thing.'

Sometimes he would say: 'I long for Alexandria, for it has pleasant weather.'

Then he would say: 'No! for the western sea is turbulent. Saadi! I have another journey ahead of me. If that is accomplished, I will spend the rest of my life in seclusion.'

I asked: 'What journey is that?'

He said: 'I intend to take Persian sulfur to China, for I have heard it is of great value there, and from there I will bring Chinese porcelain to Rome, and Roman brocade to India, and Indian steel to Aleppo, and Aleppan glassware to Yemen, and Yemeni cloth to Persia, and after that I will abandon trade and sit in a shop.'

Truly, he spoke so much of this mania that he had no strength left to speak!

He said: 'O Saadi! You too, say something of what you have seen and heard.'

Have you heard that in the farthest reaches of Ghor

A caravan leader fell from his mount?

He said: 'The narrow eye of a world-lover

Either contentment fills it, or the dust of the grave.'