The tailor went to the

In ancient times, there lived a tailor in the capital of China. He was cheerful and playful. He often took his wife out for a walk. One day, the couple went out for an early morning walk and did not return for a play until sunset. On the way, they met a hunchback. This hunchback gave people a funny feeling, his speech and behavior, people suddenly forget the pain, can not help but happy. The tailor and his wife looked at the hunchback with great interest, and when they were pleased, they asked him to go home with them, and they ate and played together.

The hunchback moved at his request, and it was getting dark when he arrived at the tailor's. The tailor went to the market at once and bought fried fish, steamed buns, lemons and grapes, and gave the hunchback a hearty dinner. They ate heartily around the table. The tailor's wife put a large piece of fish into the humpback's mouth, covered his mouth playfully, and said:

"By Allah, you can swallow the fish whole. Don't chew it. Swallow it, swallow it."

The hunchback obeyed, and a large fleshed fishbone caught him in the throat, choking him, and presently, being stuck dead. The tailor was stunned and sighed:

"Nothing can be done but Allah the Almighty! Why should this poor creature, who should die sooner or later, die at our hands?"

"Can't you just sit still?" The wife complained anxiously to the tailor, "We are sitting on a blazing fire."

"What is to be done?

"Come, you take him round, and I'll put a piece of silk over his face, and then I'll go out first, and you'll follow me, and we'll get him out in the dark, and you'll keep saying in the street, 'Boy, your mother and I will take you to the doctor. '"

At his wife's command, the tailor went out after him with his hunchback in his arms. The wife went ahead and shouted, "Oh! Get well, my son. How painful it is! But I know that smallpox like this is easily caught everywhere."

The couple walked along, talking, asking people in the street where the doctor lived, so that the whole street might know that their child was ill. At last they found the Jewish doctor's house.

The doctor's black maid heard them knock and opened the door for them. Seeing the tailors, she thought they were carrying their child, and asked, "What can I do for you?"

"We have brought our child to the doctor," said the tailor's wife. "Here is a quarter piece of gold, please give it to your master, so that he may come down and see our child. The child is very ill."

As the maid turned to go upstairs, the tailor and his wife broke into the doctor's house.

"Put the hump down," said the tailor's wife. "Let's get out of here."

The tailor hastily laid down his hunchback, placed him against the stairs, and they ran away.

The maid went upstairs and said to the doctor, "A couple came to see the doctor at the door, and they said they would give you this quarter piece to see their child."

When the doctor saw the gold, he was very pleased. He got up at once and hurried downstairs to see his patient. Down the stairs, a kick on the dead humpback, tripped and fell, humpback rolled downstairs. The doctor got up and cried, "Ah! Moses and the Ten Commandments! Aaron and Rayoshu! How could I kick this sick man and make him roll over and die? What am I to do with this dead body at home?"

Trembling, the doctor carried the hunched body upstairs and told his wife what had just happened.

"Why haven't you done anything yet?" Said the wife, "If you sit still till morning, we shall die, and you and I shall die! Come on, let's lift him onto the platform and put him in the Muslim house next door."

It turned out that the doctor's neighbor was the chief kitchen officer in the king's palace. He often brought meat from the king's palace to his house, causing cats and mice to steal it. Besides, even dogs would climb over the wall and go down to steal it, so a lot of meat was wasted. Now the doctor and his wife, one with his hunched hands, the other with his feet, lowered him slowly along the wall, and set him against a corner. When this was done, they crept quietly back to their homes.

The butler came home just as the humpback was lowered. He opened the door and went into the house with the candle. At once he found someone standing in the corner.

"Ah! On my life, "he cried," good! It was a man who stole so much meat from me! You stole my meat, and I always blamed it on dogs and cats, so that many cats and dogs in the alley suffered, but it was you who climbed down from the roof and stole it." "He cried, and immediately took a sledgehammer and struck the hump in the chest.

The humpback was thrown to the ground and remained motionless. Then the steward became frightened and grieved and sighed, "There is nothing to be done but Allah the Almighty." Thinking that his life depended on it, he said, "Those nasty meats! May Allah curse them. Is this man's life in my hands?"

He looked closely and found a hunchback.

"Isn't it enough that you were born with a crooked back?" He said, "Must we be thieves to steal meat and oil? O my Lord! Protect me and cover my sin." So the butler, with the hump on his back, groped through the night as far as the corner of the street, set him down, leaned his humpback body against the door of a shop, and fled.

At this moment, a drunken Christian merchant was about to take a bath. "Soon!" he murmured. Almost to the bath!" He staggered to the hunchback and sat down to undo his shoelace. Suddenly he saw a man standing beside him, and he got up abruptly, thinking that he was trying to steal his entwined head. It turned out that he had just had his petticoat stolen the night before, and he was very angry about it. Then he struck the humpback in the neck, and the humpback went down. The merchant, who was very drunk, shouted, "Stop the thief," and jumped on the humpback, holding his hands tightly around his neck. When the inspector arrived, he saw the merchant pounding on his humpback.

"Why hit?" Asked the inspector.

"This man is trying to grab my head."

'Get up!

The Christian merchant stood up. The inspector went over and saw that the man had been killed. 'All right! The inspector said, "The Christians have killed the Mohammedans." So they tied up the Christians and took them to the yamen.

"Christ! Holy Mary!" The Christian trader shouted angrily, "How could I kill a man? I only punched him once. How did he die? How quickly he died! '

After that, the Christian merchant sobered up, came to his senses, and sadly spent the night in prison with the hunchback.

The next day, before the judge executed the murderer, the presiding officer declared the Christian merchant guilty and led him to the gallows. When the rope was round his neck and he was about to be put to death, the kitchen-steward came suddenly. He pushed his way through the crowd, and when he saw that the Christian merchant was about to be hanged, he pressed his way with all his strength to the presiding officer and said in a voice:

"Don't hang him. I killed him."

"Why did you kill?" 'asked the judge.

"When I came home last night, he was climbing down from the roof to steal from me. In my anger, I hit him in the chest with a heavy hammer and killed him. Afraid, I carried him out into the street and propped him against a shop door. But now, I think, I have killed a Mohammedan, and I will not let this Christian die. Now pay for my life and hang me."

Upon hearing the chamberlain's surrender, the judge acquitted the Christian merchant and set him free. "Hang the man." The judge pointed to the galley steward and ordered the executioner.

At the judge's command, the executioner took the rope from the Christian merchant's neck, put it around the chief steward's neck, and led him to the gallows, ready to open it. At this moment, the Jewish doctor pushed his way through the crowd, and, Shouting, rushed under the gallows, saying:

"You can't hang him. He didn't kill him, I did. Yesterday I was in my house, and a man and a woman came to see a doctor. They brought this hunchback with them, and they told the maid to give me a quarter piece of gold, saying that they would cure him. The man and the woman came into my house, let him rest against the stairs, and they left. I groped downstairs to see the patient, couldn't see clearly in the dark, kicked him on the body, he fell down, immediately fell dead. My wife and I lifted the body onto the platform and managed to put it in the house of the steward, who was our neighbor. The seneschal returned and found the hunchback in his house. Thinking it was a thief, he struck him down with a hammer and thought he had killed him. I have killed a Mohammedan by accident, but I do not want to kill another Mohammedan by accident!"

Because of the Jewish doctor's surrender, the judge ordered the executioner: "Release the butler and hang the Jew for his life."

The executioner again put the rope round the Jew's neck, and was about to open it when the tailor suddenly pushed through the crowd, ran to the gallows, and said to the executioner:

"Don't wring him. He didn't kill him, I did. Here it is: I went for a walk early yesterday morning, and when I came home in the afternoon, I met this hunchback who was drunk. He played a small drum and hummed a tune. I invited him to my house and cooked him fish. My wife took a piece of fish, and thrust it into his mouth, and he got stuck dead. My wife and I took him to the Jewish doctor's house, and his maid answered the door, and I said to her, 'Tell your master to come down quickly and see our child. 'Then I gave her a quarter gold piece. While she went upstairs to inform the master, I put my hump on the stairs and stole away with my wife. The doctor came down and kicked him, and thought he had killed him. '

"Is that the truth? 'he asked the Jewish doctor.

"Yes, indeed." 'replied the doctor.

"Let the Jew go," said the tailor, looking at the judge, "and let me pay for it."

"It's a curious thing to record." The judge was surprised when he heard the tailor's confession. Then he ordered the executioner: "Let the Jew go, and hang him according to the tailor's confession."

"What trouble!" said the executioner, as he put the rope round the tailor's neck. Now and then we'll wring that, and now we'll wring that, and no one will die!"

That hunchback, originally for the emperor to laugh at a dwarf, whenever and wherever the emperor. He slipped out of the palace drunk and did not return for two days. The emperor asked for his whereabouts. The courtier went out to inquire about the situation and reported to the king:

"I inform you that the hunchback is dead and his body has been sent to the yamen. The judge is going to hang the murderer. It is strange, however, that when he has declared his guilt and is about to be hanged, some of them always come forward and confess to the murder. Several have already done so, and each has told the story."

Then the emperor told his guards, "Go to the court and send the judge to the palace and ask him to bring all the prisoners to me."

When the guards arrived at the court, the executioner was ready to hang the tailor.

'Wait a minute! The court-servant stopped the executioner, conveyed the emperor's instructions to the judge, and at once ordered the humpback to be carried to the palace, together with the tailor, the Jewish doctor, the Christian merchant, and the steward. The judge, seeing the emperor, knelt down and kissed the ground, and reported the incident to the emperor. When the emperor heard this, he was surprised and excited.

At this time, a barber who had just entered the palace stood out and watched the scene. He is very strange.

'Your Majesty! The barber said, "Why are the tailor, the Christian merchant, the Jewish doctor, the Muslim steward, and the dead humpback here? What's the matter?"

The Emperor smiled and said, "Come, tell the barber what happened at the Hunchback's supper last night, and what the Christian merchant, the Jewish doctor, the butler, and the tailor said."

When the barber heard all this, he said, "This is a wonder among wonders!" Then he shook his head and said, "Let me see the hump." Then he sat down near the humpback, put his head in his lap, looked at it carefully, and suddenly laughed so hard that he almost fell to the ground. "Everyone dies for a reason," he said, "and the humpback's death is especially worth recording."

His words and deeds puzzled everyone, and the emperor was no less puzzled.

"By your grace, Sire, this hunchback is not dead. He is still breathing." "Said the barber, taking a jar out of his bag, and opening it, he took out a bottle of eye-medicine, which he smeared with oil on the hunchback's neck. Then he took out an iron clamp, which he put carefully into the hunchback's throat, and brought out a piece of fish, covered with blood and bone. Suddenly the hunchback sneezed, and suddenly he got up. With great pride, he stretched out his hand and rubbed his face.

"Allah is the sole ruler and Muhammad is his apostle."

The Emperor and all the people laughed their heads off in amazement.

"By Allah," said the Emperor, "this is a wonderful thing. There is no stranger than this, my people," he continued: "Have you ever seen a man who died and came back to life? Had it not been for the barber, the hunchback would have faked his death."

"By Allah," they all said, "this is a miracle in a million."

Surprised, the emperor ordered the palace people to record the story of hunchback as historical documents. He rewarded the Jewish doctor, the Christian merchant, and the steward with a suit of fine clothes, and sent them all home. The tailor, the humpback, and the barber each received a suit of fine clothes from the Emperor. From then on, the tailors worked in the palace, drawing monthly salaries; The hunchback still accompanied the emperor, laughing and joking, and received a high salary; The barber, however, became the emperor's attendant, cutting hair for the emperor.

They each had their own job and lived comfortably and happily.